— — > 


&\S>SrK9<S 


1  PRISONER  OF  WAS, 


(3 


OR 


f be  fl0nt|s  ^mong  %  fankees. 


<b| 


Being    a   Narrative   of  the   Crosses,  Calamities,   and 

Consolations  of  a  Petersburg  Militiaman  during 

an   enforced  Summer  Residence  North. 


BY  A.  RIFLEMAN,  ESQ.,  GENT. 


c:4; 


aJ  PUBLISHED    nY 

^         WEST     &    JOHN  ST  ON, 


Main  Street,  Richmond,  Va. 


PRISONER  OF  WAR, 


OR 


Jibe  lioittjjs  giiMitg  %  jjaita. 


*\i 


Being    a   Narrative   of    the    Crosses,    Calamities,   and 

Consolations  of  a  Petersburg  Militiaman  during 

an   enforcsd  Summer  Residence  North. 


B 


BY  A.  RIFLEMAN,  ESQ.,  GENT. 


PUBLISHED     BY 

WEST     &    JOHNSTON 

Main  Street,  Richmond,  Va. 


PEEFACE. 

My  publishers,  in  whose  judgment  I  have  a  superstitious 
confidence,  demand  a  Preface ;  so  I  must  be  pardoned  for  in- 
forming the  reader — what  I  suspect  he  would  discover  as  well 
without — that  he  will  find  in  this  Narrative  a  plain  unembel- 
lished  account  of  my  experiences  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  wherein 
I  have  endeavored  to  confine  myself  to  a  simple  detail  of 
facts,  avoiding  moralizings,  eschewing  rhetoric,  and  modestly 
Renouncing  my  privilege  of  criticising  "the  situation."  I 
have  written  rapidly,  in  the  midst  of  daily  work  which  left 
me  no  time  for  even  the  effort  to  round  my  sentences,  if  I  had 
the  disposition.  If  any  of  my  countrymen  or  countrywomen 
shall  feel  disappointment  at  the  moderate  quantity  of  horrors 
herein,  let  them  remember  that  I  profess  only  to  give  what  I 
saw  and  knew,  and  not  what  I  heard,  however  well  authenti- 
cated ;  and  as  I  write  with  a  diary  before  me,  which  I  kept 
throughout  my  captivity,  I  claim  for  my  story  the  merit  of 
literal  accuracy,  both  of  fact  and  figure. 

Some  will  reproach  me  for  not  coloring  my  pages  with  hues 
drawn  from  the  passions  of  the  hour,  and  God  knows  there  is 
material  enough  for  a  fiercer  flame  than  any  that  rages  in  a 
Southern  heart :  others  will  challenge  the  propriety  of  certain 
praises  of  the  conduct  of  some  of  my  enemies.  To  the  first, 
I  answer  that  this  story  to  deserve  the  confidence  of  the  pub- 
lic, must  be  "  an  unvarnished  tale,"  and  to  the  latter  I  can 
make  no  better  reply  than  the  immortal  sentiment  of  Pym, 
"I  had  rather  suffer  for  speaking  the  truth,  than  that  truth 
should  suffer  for  want  of  my  speaking." 

So,  wishing  my  readers  the  happiest  of  New  Years,  I  felici- 
tate myself  that  my  Preface  is  happily  over. 

The  Author. 
Petersburg,  January  2nd,  I860. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Ahsit  Omen. — Twenty  Thousand  Cavalry  Approaching. — A 
Grave  Perplexity. — Ready  for  Action. 

Young  ladies  who  swear  by  Tom  Moore  and  L.  E.  L.,  and 
are  afflicted  with  constitutional  proclivities  towards  dyspepsia 
and  dactyls,  are  wont  to  affirm  that  the  Fates  provide  moni- 
tory omens  in  every  important  or  semi-important  event  of 
our  lives,  after  the  chivalric  fashion  of  those  blessed  trouba- 
dour clays,  when  from  tournament  to  tented  field,  no  contest 
was  thought  lawfully  begun  without  the  preliminary  flourish 
of  some  stalwort  Stentor,  who,  if  I  rightly  remember  my 
Froissart  and  Bran  tome,  was  uniformly  chosen  with  an  eye 
single  to  his  strength  of  lung,  and  his  proficiency  in  lying — 
the  man  whose  herald  shouted  loudest  and  bragged  highest, 
having  achieved  that  premier  pas  which  in  virtue  or  villainy 
always  costs. 

There  can  be  no  more  groundless  fallacy.  Dame  Fortune 
commences  hostilities  in  ninety  per  cent,  of  her  wars  without 
blowing  a  trumpet,  launching  a  proclamation,  or  firing  the 
mildest  of  blank  cartridges  across  our  bows,  quietly  ambush  ■ 
ing  the  best  of  us  in  the  most  flowery  vallies,  buffetting  and 
persecuting  us  to  the  top  of  her  bent,  without  so  much  as 
"by  your  leave,  sir." 

Marvel  not  then,  most  considerate  of  readers,  that  the  9th 
day  of  June,  in  the  last  year  of  grace,  dawned  on  me  as  on 
the  rest  of  my  fellow-creatures,  in  the  vicinage  of  this  ancient 
town  of  Petersburg,  with  as  fair  a  face  and  as  bright  a  promise 
as  the  best  of  her  sisters  in  all  that  queenly  Spring.  No 
croaking  crow  cawed  unusual  prophecy  of  evil  over  our 
heads  ;  no  friendly  geese  cackled  their  "qui  vUa?"  to  intrud- 
ing barbarians,  winning  the  immortal  gratitude  of  modern 
Quirites  :    there  were  no  portents  in  earth  or  air,  and  though 


6  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

on  the  day  in  question  I' came  to  exceeding  grief,  it  must  have 
been  written  for  me  aforetime — "  absit  omen!  " 

I  was  sitting  in  my  office  peacefully  engaged  in  endeavor- 
ing to  extract  from  the  Eichmond  papers,  just  received, 
something  like  an  idea  of  "the  situation,"  when,  as  though 
our  city  were  blessed  with  a  patent  fire  telegraph,  all  the 
available  bell  metal  in  the  corporation  broke  into  chorus 
with  so  vigorous  a  peal  and  a  clangor  so  resonant,  as  to  suggest 
to  the.  uninitiated  a  general  conflagration.  Not  being  con- 
nected with  the  fire-brigade,  and  being  otherwise  totally  dis- 
interested on  the  subject  of  inflammable  real  estate,  I  might 
have  remained  absorbed  in  my  enquiries,  and  thus  escaped 
my  fate,  (and  you  this  pamphlet,)  but  for  a  general  under- 
standing, if  not  order,  that  this  signal,  theretofore  consecrated 
to  the  annunciation  of  fire,  should  thenceforth  in  Petersburg, 
serve  the  purpose  further  of  heralding  the  approach  of  another 
"devouring  element," — the  Yankees.  Thus  it  came  to  pass, 
that  in  most  indecent  haste  I  let  fall  my  journals  and  hastened 
into  the  street,  to  learn  from  the  first  excited  passer-by  that 
the  enemy's  cavalry  to  the  number  of  twenty  thousand — so 
ran  the  tale — were  approaching  the  city,  and  already  within 
two  miles  of  where  my  informant  stood !  The  "  usual  dis- 
count "  of  seventy-five  per  cent,  still  left  the  tale  uncomfort- 
able to  a  degree. 

"  What  forces  have  we  on  the  Jerusalem  plank  road,  (the 
road  by  which  they  were  approaching,)  do  you  know  ?  " 

"  Not  a man  except  Archer's  Battalion,  and  not  all 

of  those." 

Here  was  what  Bill  Sayres  would  call  "  another  bloody  go." 

Military  criticism  was  however  obviously  out  of  place  just 
then,  though,  like  all  my  fellow  Americans,  I  affirm  my  com- 
petence and  claim  my  right  to  hold  forth  on  that  theme,  so  I 
turned  the  key  in  my  office  door, — destined  alas!  to  remain 
untouched  by  hand  of  mine  for  many  a  moon — and  calling  by 
my  home  to  replenish  my  commissariat,  I  sallied  forth  pre- 
pared (morally  speaking)  to  do  battle  a  Vouirancc,  against  all 
comers  of  the  Yankee  persuasion,  though  they  had  been  as 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  7 

numerous  as  Abe's  jokes,  or  the  leaves  in  that  umbrageous 
Spanish  valley  which  has  clone  such  incalculable  service  to 
simile  mongers  since  the  days  of  our  greatest  of  great  grand- 
mothers. 

Admonished  by  the  example  of  Tristram  Shandy,  whose 
amiable  desire  to  acquaint  his  friends  and  the  world  with 
everything  possible  to  be  known  of  himself,  leads  him  into 
most  indecourous  developments  in  the  first  three  chapters  of 
his  autobiography,  I  shall  not  undertake  to  explain,  but  only 
state  the  fact  that  I  was  at  that  time  not  in  " the  service"  in 
any  capacity — though  it  is  due  to  my  family  and  friends,  to 
say  that  I  was  not  in  the  Nitre  and  Mining  Bureau,  nor  the 
editor  of  a  newspaper.     One  result  of  this  unattached  condi- 
tion was,  that  like  "  Black  Dan "  in  the  halcyon  days  after 
Tippecanoe  was  translated,  I  was  somewhat  puzzled  to  know 
'whither  I  should  go."     Another  difficulty  was,  the  vague- 
ness of  my  idea  what  to  do  when  I  got  there ;    but  as  the 
place  to  be  useful  was  obviously  the  line  of  the  enemy's  ap- 
proach, I  turned  my  face  thither  and  soon  found  myself  in  the 
camp  of  Major  Archer's  battalion,  where  all  was  preparation. 
My  first  duty  was  to  make  intelligent  choice  between  three 
specimens  of  smooth-bore  military  architecture,   universally 
known  in  the  army  as  "  altered  percussions  " — guns  originally 
with   flint  locks,  and  therefore  demonstrably  a  quarter  of  a 
century  old,  but  modernized  by  the  substitution  of  the  per- 
cussion hammer  and  tube.     These  hybrids,  without  bayonete 
were  the  weapons  with  which  that  handful  of  militia  were  to 
resist  (or  fly  before)  the  picked  cavalry  (and  many  regime 
of  them,)  of  the  Yankee  army. 

One  of  these  formidable  arquebuses  had  a  trigger  with  so 
weak  a  spring  that  the  tenderesfc  cap  ever  turned  out  of  a 
laboratory  would  successfully  resist  its  pressure :  the  second 
was  so  rusty,  that  its  ram-rod  shrank  from  sounding  its  oxy- 
dized  depths,  while  the  third,  which  had  the  "  spic  and  span  " 
appearance  of  an  assistant  surgeon  or  a  regimental  adjutant 
on  his  first  appearance,  proved  on  examination  to  be  so  bent 
and  wrenched,  that  you  could  not  see  light  through  it  when 


PRISONER   OF  WAR. 


the  breech-pin  was  unscrewed !  I  now  began  to  be  over- 
whelmed with  apprehensions  that  I  was  destined  to  act  ex- 
clusively as  a  lay-figure  in  the  drama  about  to  be  put  on  the 
boards,  and  my  vanity  not  a  little  recoiled  from  the  prospect 
of  playing  dummy  in  the  game,  when  a  friend,  commiserating 
my  perplexity,  handed  me  a  gun  left  in  his  tent  by  a-  comrade 
who  had  gone  to  town  "on  leave"  that  morning,  and  who 
was  not  likely  to  return.  I  soon  balanced  the  "provant" 
which  filled  one  of  my  pockets  with  ammunition  enough  to 
fill  the  other,  and  accounting  myself  "  armed  and  equipped  as 
the  law  directs,"  I  joined  the  nearest  company  of  "  local  for- 
ces," and  accompanied  them  to  the  earthwork,  a  few  hundred 
yards  in  front  of  their  camp,  for  duty. 


CHAPTEE  II. 


General  Kautz  Opens  his   Mouth  to  Gobble  Petersburg. — A 

Modern  Thermopylse. — Pro  Aris  et  Focis  1 — The  Author 

Gobbled! 

The  sun  was  clambering  up  the  sky — a  figure  which  As- 
tronomy has  vainly  tilted  against  since  the  Great  Italian's 
day — and  the  town- clock  had  struck  10  many  minutes  before, 
when  a  pair  of  frantic  videttes, — one  of  them  without  his  hat 
— tore  into  camp  on  foaming  steeds  with  the  news  that  the 
enemy,  not  more  than  a  half  a  mile  away,  were  rapidly  ap- 
proaching in  a  body  consisting  of  several  regiments  of  Caval- 
ry, and  at  least  four  pieces  of  artillery.  Our  "position"  was 
an  open  earth-work — the  front  face  of  which  was  cut  at  right 
angles  by  the  Jerusalem  plankroad — a  thoroughfare  which 
some  outside  barbarians  may  not  know,  opens  up  to  deserving 
Petersburgers  the  beatific  vision  of  Sussex  lrems  and  South- 
ampton brandy.  This  work  intended  to  accommodate  two 
pieces  of  artillery,  but  then  all  innocent  of  ordnance,  was  ac- 


five  months  among  the  Yankees.  9 

fcompanied  by  a  line  of  low  breast- works  running  out  on  either 
flank  to  afford  shelter  to  such  infantry  as  might  be  destined  to 
support  the  guns,  while  beyond,  on  each  side,  lay  a  level  and 
accessible  country  inviting  easy  approach  to  man  or  beast- 
There  was  nothing  in  the  character  of  the  position  to  give  the 
assailed  any  advantage  oilier  tharf that  which  the  breast- work 
offered  in  case  of  a  direct  attack,  the  ground  being  almost  a 
dead  level  in  axevy  direction,  and  when  Major  Archer,  our 
commandant,  disposed  his  little  force  of  about  125  men  along 
the  extended  line — 600  yards,  I  presume — it  was  perfectly 
evident  that  20,000  cavalry^  or  any  respectable  minority  of 
the  same,  would  make  short  work  of  us.  In  conformity  to 
universal  civili  ;ed  precedent,  the  Major  addressed  us  a  word 
of  cheer  and  counsel  befo  ssigned  us  our  position;  but 

there  was  eloquence  incomparably  superior  to  all  the  witch- 
ery of  wok!-;  im  the  hundred  homes  which  stood  but  a  scant 
cannon-shot  behind  us,  and  ifi  the  reflection  that,  according 
as  Ave  did  our  devoir,  to  them  and  to  hundreds  more,  there, 
might  bo  then  and  thenceforth  grief  or  rejoicing.  Small 
marvel  then,  that  as  1  looked  down  our  little  band,  sparsely 
stretched  over  our  extended  and  exposed  front,  and  noticed 
how  well  the  best  and  noblest  of  our  townsmen  were  repre- 
sented in  its  ranks,  I  felt  that  they  would  give  an  account  of 
themselves,  that  no  wile  or  mother,  sweetheart  or  sister, 
would,  blush  to  hear  or  remember,  though  every  Cossack 
that  even-  swam  the  Don,  should  charge  our  line  that  day. 

We  had  not  long  to  wait :  a  cloud  of  dust  in  our  front, 
told  of  the  hurried  advance  of  cavalry,  and  the  next  moment 
the  glitter  of  spur  and  scabbard  revealed  to  us  a  long  line  of 
horsemen,  rapidly  deploying  under  cover  of  a  wood  that  ran 
parallel  to  our  line,  and  about  a  half  a  mile  in  front  of  us. 
Then  we  miteed  our  cannon*  our  venerable  muskets  were  not 
worth  a  tinker's  imprecation  at  longer  range  than  a  hundred 
yards,  and  we  were  compelled,  per  force,  to  watch  the  prepar- 
ations for  our  capture  or  sla  .  much  after  the  fashion 
that  a  rational  turtle  may  be  presumed  to  contemplate  the  pre- 
liminaries of  a  civic  dinner  in  London  A  little  ofthat  military 
•> 


10  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

coquetry  called  reconnoissance,  determined  our  enemy  to  feel 
us  first  with  a  small  portion  of  his  command,  and  on  came, 
at  a  sweeping  gallop,  a  gallant  company  of  troopers  with  as 
confident  an  air  ns  though  all  that  was  necessary  was  that 
they  should  "come"  and. "see1'  in  order  to  "  conquer."' 
Every  one  saw  that  this  was  a  party  we  could  easily  manage, 
and  we  possessed,  therefore,  our  souls  in  great  patience  till 
we  could  see  the  chevrons  on  the  arm  of  the  non-com mis- 
'  sioncd  officer  who  led  them,  and  then  there  broke  forth  (from 
such  muskets  as  could  be  induced  to  go  off,)  a  discharge  that 
scattered  the  cavaliers  like  chaff, — three  riderless  horses 
being  all  of  the  expedil  ion  that  entered  our  lines..  This  trifling 
event  saved  the  cii  rsburg, — -v.  hat  else  it  saved,  let  the 

reader  ask  himself! — Tor  the  Yankees  now  became  convinced 
that  no  cavalry  charge  would  frighten  these  ununiformed  and 
"half-armed  militia-men  from  their  posts,  and  that  a  regular 
infantry  attack  must  be  made\  For  this  purpose,  two  regi- 
ments of  their  cavalry  were  dismounted  and  deployed  on 
either  side  of  the  road,  in  a  line  double  the  length  of  our  owmv 
and  it  was  evident  that  they  had  d  i  to  flank  us  on 

both  sides.  The  welcome  rattle  of  artillery  horses  brought 
now  a  cheer  to  t  lip  as  we  observed  two  field  pieces  fall- 

ing into  position  on  our  right,  and  the  sharp  shriek  of  a  shell 
curvetting  over  the  Yankee  line,  was  an  agreeable  variation 
of  the  monotonous  silence  in  which,  to  the  right  and  left, 
their  skirmish  line  was  stretching  away  to  encompass  us. 
This  occasioned  another  check,  and  provoked  an  artillery 
response,  which  continued  for  twenty  minutes,  with  about  the 
effect  currently  attributed  to  sacred  melodies  chanted  in  the 
hearing  of  a  certain  useful  hybrid,  deceased.  But  these  were 
all  golden  moments  for  Petersburg, — cannon,  and  horses  were 
pouring  into  town.  Graha.it  and  ;--tu.rdJ.vant's  batteries  were 
wheeling  into  position,  and  Dearing  was  hastening  to  the 
scene  with  his  gallant  cavalry. 

And  now  came  the  serious  attack :  the  enemy  advanced,, 
outnumbering  us  five  to  one  and  armed  with  the  sixteen  shoot- 
ing  rifle,  thus  increasing   over  fifty   fold  their   actual  supe- 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  H 

riority, — and  there  we  fought  them  ;  fought  them  till  we 
were  so  surrounded;  that  the  two  nearest  men  to  me  were  shot 
in  ilve  back  while  facing  the  Line  of  original  approach  ;  till  both 
our  guns  were  captured  ;  till  our  camp,  in  rear  of  the  works, 
was  full  of  the  foe-  till  the  noblest  blood  of  our  city  stained 
the  clay  of  the  breast- work  as  th  out  their  lives,  gun 

•in  hand  and  face  foeward,  on  the  snot  where  their  officers 
placed  them.  Their  faces  now  rise  before  .me  this  summery 
morning  in  November,  the  calm  grave  countenances  of  Ban- 
nister  and  Staubley,  the  generous  joyous  frankness  of  Friend 
and  Hardy,  i  ;  \j  conscientious  lire  of  patriotism  in  all — 

Bellingham  and  Blanks,  Jones,  Johnson,  and  the  rest, — all 
gallant  gentlemen  and  true,  one  of  whose  lives  was  well  worth 
all  the  Yankees  from  Indus  to  the  pole:  and  I  could  but  ask 
■myself  then  as  now,  the  prophetic  question  whoso  answer 
in  all  ages  su  .as  o.f  Faith 

— can  such  blond j  un  .' 

One  by  one  I  around  me — Bellingham    the  last — 

and  as  I  turned  and  to  change  his  position  to  one  of 

greater  comfort,  at  Lis  request,  the  enemy  trooped  over  the 
earth-work  behind  me,  the  foremost  presenting  his  loaded 
■carbine,  demanded  my  surrender  with  an  unrepeatable  vio- 
lence of  language  that  suggested  bloodshed,  and  all  avenue 
of  escape  being  cut  off,  I  yielded  with  what  grace  I  could 
to  my  fate,  captive  to  the  bow  and  spear  of  a  hatchet-faced 
member  of  the  1st  District  Cavalry,  greatly  enamored  of  this 
honorable  opportunity  of  going  to  the  rear. 

He  conveyed  me  to  Major  AVetlierell,  the  Provost  Marshal 
of  General  i'.  command,  who  wa  the  animate 

and  inanixnal  day, — the  latter  consisting  of  our 

muskets,  all  of  w  with  utter  disregard  for  their  age  and 

manifest  infirmities,  he  incontinently  smashed.  At  this  point 
I  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  a  Yank,  whose  haste  to  des- 
troy our  guns  was  so  great,  that  he  would  not  take  time  to 
withdraw  the  load,  blow  a  h  •  in  his  thigh — an  accident 
whereon  his  Yankship  i-  :>     bably  mc  to  this  hour. 

One  by  one,  other  captives  b*  in  an  [  were  ar- 


12  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

ranged  in  line,,  and  a  more  varied  collection  in  the  same  com- 
pass, could  not  well  be  imagined.  An  inexcusable  weakness, 
for  looking  at  the  ridiculous  side  of  everything,  overcame, 
for  a  moment,  my  apprehensions  for  the  safety  of  the  city, 
and  my  sorrow  and  shock  over  the  loss  of  my  friends^ 
though  the  latter  sentiment,  has  alas  !  received  rude  treat- 
ment many  a  time,  and  oft  during  this  bloody  war. 

Several  of  my  comrades  were  many  years  over  fifty,  while 
some  had  not  passed  their  second  decade,  and  their  pursuits 
were  as  diverse  as  their  ages.  Although,  so. few  in  number, 
I  noticed  among  my  fellow-captives,  tradesmen  and  farmers, 
clerks  and  school-masters,  merchants  and  millers,  manufac- 
turers, and  magistrates,  a  city  chamberlain,  a  member  of  the 
legislature,  and  a  chaplain!  In  the  matter  of  uniform  and 
soldierly  appearance,  we  were  as  motley  a  crew,  as  the  mem- 
orable squad  of  recruits  that  Sir  John  swore  he  would  not 
lead  through  Coventry. 


CHAPTER  III. 

General  ICaulz  comes  to  grief- — In  the  Chain  Gang — First 
Sleep  in  vinculis — Kautz  and  the  AuV.or  talk  it  over — No 
Result. 

One  of  the  regiments  that  had  not  been  dismounted  now 
gallopped  up  the  road — all  obstacles  being  removed  and  filing 
to  the  left  set  their  horses'  faces  toward  the  city.  The  prison- 
ers meanwhile  had  been  all  gathered  together  and  an  officer 
was  making  a  memorandum  of  their  names,  when  a  shell 
came  booming  over  us  with  a  welcome  whistle,  for  it  betoken- 
ed resistance  at  a  point  where  we  thought  our  city  defenc- 
less.  Another  and  another!  and  emerging:  from  the  lane 
down  which  a  few  moments  before  they  had  turned  with  such 
evident  anticipation  of  easy  conquest,,  we  saw   the  rear,  now 


FIVE   MONTHS    AMONG    THE    YANKEES.  13 

by  a  '"bout  face,"  the  front,  of  theYaukee  column  retreating 
with  Gilpin  speed!  All  thought  of  cataloguing  us  was  now 
abandoned  and  with  significant  intimations  of  the  need  of 
haste,  we  were  ordered  under  a  heavy  escort  "back to  camp." 
It  was  a  little  after  twelve — for  we  had  held  our  ground  two 
hours — when  we  started  on  our  devious  way  to  the  pontoon 
bridge  that  Butler  had  stretched  across  the  river  at  Point  of 
Eocks,  and  with  but  one  rest  before  we  reached  the  river  we 
continued  our  toilsome  march — the  cavalry  constantly  urgino- 
us  to  greater  "speed.  Once  or  twice  I  got  a  "  lift  "  from  some 
benevolent  trooper,  who  recognized  the  difficulty  which  bipeds 
experience  in  matching  tl  !    of  animals  of  more  liberal 

ambulator v  endowments,  and  before  we  had  gone  very  far 
the  assistant  provost  martial,  Lieutenant  W.  E.  Bird,  intro- 
duced himself  by  an  inquiry  after  his  uncle  a  well  known 
citizen  of  Petersburg.  This  introduction  was  fruitful  of  cer- 
tain liquid  comforts  to  which  it  is  needless  to  make  more  par- 
ticular allusion,  and  long  before  we  arrived  at  our  journey's 
end  we  had  established  a  rapport — a  canteen  being  the  medium 
— which  I  remember  now  all  the  more  gratefully  as  death  has 
proclaimed  an  endless  fcruqe  between  the  Lieutenant  and  his 
prisoner.  I  have  said  we  made  one  regular  halt — this  was 
within  a  half  a  mile  of  the  river,  and  about  11  p.  m.,  when 
we  stopped  to  permit  our  captors  to  take  a  little  refreshment. 
Here  we  were  gathered  together  and  counted,  when  to  the 
surprise  of  some,  there  was  one  man  missing.  The  roll  was 
called  and  Rev.  Mr.  Hall,  Chaplain  of  the  Wi  n  Artil- 

lery was  found  to  be  absent.  lie  had  come  out  to  the  trenches 
after  the  light  began,  in  order  to  bring  news  to  a  lady  in  Pe- 

burg  at  whose,  house  he  was  stopping,  of  the  fate  of  her 
husband.  Though  unarmed,  a  non,-combatant,  and  a  mere 
spectatpr,  he  was  seized  by  the  Yanks,  put  into  line  with  the 
rest  and  hurried  off  despite  his  proti  .  t.  <  )n  .the  inarch  I  was 
introduced  to   him — misery   acquainting  us    oftentimes  with 

ieble  as  well  a  lows,  and  found  that  he  had 

falling  into  B  i— a  worthy 

whose   I   oder  as,  and 


FRISO^ER   OF   WAR.  14 

whose  character  and  acts  he  had  charaterized  in  terms  of  just 
and  indignant  criticism  in  a  publication  in  t lie  Southern  news- 
papers shortly  after  the  Beast  drove  him  from  the  city. 

Unwilling,  therefore,to  fall  again  into  that  saint's  hands,  he 
^contrived  to  escape  by  obtaiuing  permission  to  ride  in  an  am- 
bulance which  soon  got  separated  from  that  portion  of  the 
column  in  which  the  rest  of  the  prisoners  were,  and  when  the 
party  stopped,  he  quietly  slipped  out  of  the  wagon,  plunged 
into  the  woods,  the  night  being  as  dark  as  Erebus,  and  thus 
escaped. 

The  Provost  Marshal's  wrath  was  excessive  and  profane  at 
this  contretemps,  and  he  endeavored  to  shield  himself  from  the 
charge  of  neglect  by  insisting  that  Mr.  Hall  had  given  his 
parole  not  to  attempt  to  escape— a  very  unlikely  story — in- 
deed simply  absurd. 

While  stopping  here,  the  rest  of  the  d'scomfited  Brigade 
overtook  us,  and  filing  by,  crossed  the  pontoon-bridge  before 
ws.  We  followed  them,  crossed  into  Chesterfield  county, 
tramping  along  a  well  beaten  road  lined  with  tents,  and  with 
all  the  appointments  and  appearance  of  a  huge, camp. 

It  was  past  midnight  as  we  neared  General  Kautz's  head- 
quarters, some -three  miles  from  Bermuda  Hundreds.  A  filthy 
log  hut,  which  was  used  as  a  guard  house,  was  pointed  out  to 
us,  as  our  hotel,  and  foot-sore,  and  weary,  and  hungry  and 
blanketless,  we  threw  ourselves  on  the  ground  to  take  our 
first  sleep  as  captives. 

I  had  hardly  disposed  myself  for  a  nap  when  I  heard  my 
name  called  at  the  door,  and  on  answering,  was  invited  to  ac- 
cept a  blanket  and  a  berth  in  the  tent  of  my  new  friend  Lieu- 
tenant Bird.     I  accepted  nem  con. 

Of  course  I  ought  now  to  have  spent  at  least  an  hour  medi- 
tating on  the  stirring  and  unusual  events  of  the  day,  planning 
measures  of  escape,  congratulating  myself  on  the  safety  of 
Petersburg,  berating  the  Yankees  or  wafting  to  the  sympa- 
thizing stars  affectionate  messages  to — none  of  your  business 
whom.  Alas  !  with  much  humiliation  do  I  confess,  my  hand 
oa  my  mouth  and  my  face  in  the  dust,  not  all  nor  any  of  these 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  15 

things  did  I.  Doffing  my  shoes— no  old  soldier  sleeps  in  his 
shoes — I  speak  from  two  and  a  half  years  of  experience — I 
stretched  myself  on  the  floor,  wrapped  a  blanket  around  me, 
and  with  a  "good  morning  Bird,"  fell  straightway  into  so 
profound  a  sleep,  that  if  eyes  soft  or  stern  flashed  on  rnc 
in  dreams  that  night,  they  left  no  trace  on  my  waking  mem* 
ory  then,  nor  leave  they  any  now. 

It  was  broad  day  when  I  shook  myself  out  of  my  blanket 
at  the  instance  of  a  friendly- voiced  son  of  Yaterland,  who  ad. 
ministered  a  little  spirituous  consolation,  besides  furnishing  me 
with  a  bueket  of  water  and  a  towel,  and  in  a  few  moments  I 
was  ready  for  a  visit  to  my  comrades,  whose  complaints  of  their 
several  discomforts  during  the  night  argued  a  very  indifferent 
appreciation  of  the  lodging  accomodations  of  their  hotel. 

The  gnawing-  claims  of  vulgar  hunger  soon  however  proved, 
to  be  gifted  with  the  swallowing  power  of  Aaron's  rod,  and 
we  refused  to  be  comforted  because  rations  were  not. 

It  was  quite  9  a.  m.,  when  a  barrel  of  "salt  horse"  and 
a  couple  of  bo^es  of  "  hard  tack"  were  deposited  at  the  door 
of  our  pen,  ami  Hanking  them,  was  a  keg  of  most  odorous 
sour  krout  and  a  small  supply  of  potatoes.  And  here,  gen- 
tlest reader,. after  a  fashion  which,  for  thy  instruction,  I  pro- 
pose to  pursue,  generally,  in  this  narrative,  let  me  jot  down 
from  my  note-book  the  reflection  I  straightway  made  on  the 
uncovering  of  the  sour  krout.  I  find  written  as  follows: 
"June  10th,  1SG-1;  the  man  who  invented  sour  krout  had 
but  three  senses." 

To  explain,  much   more  to  enlarge  upon,  the  above  text 
would  demand  an  amount  of  space  not  to  be  thought  of  in  the 
present  condition  of  the  rag  market. 

We  were  dividing  out  our  "provender"  with  soldierly 
equity,  when,  very  much  to  my  amazement,  an  orderly  hal- 
looed at  the  door  that  General  Kautz  wished  to  see  me4  and 
hoping  that  there  might  be  some  good  news  for  the  citizen 
prisoners,  several  of  whom  were  in  our  party — possibly  their 
release, — I  abandoned  my  rations,  [n  folly,  I  confess  with 
mortification,)  and  in  a  few  minutes  found  myself  in  the  pre- 


16  PRISONEB   OV   WAR. 

sence  of  the  celebrated  raider.  Kautz  is  a  man  of  about  five 
feet  ten  inches  in  height,  I  should  suppose,  though  I  only  saw 
him  in  a  sitting  position,  has  a  swarthy  complexion,  a  square 
massive  head,  wears  his  hair  and  beard  cut  close,  speaks 
slowly  and  thoughtfully,  and  has  the  breeding  of  a  gentleman. 
He  desired  me  to  take  a  seat,  offered  a  cigar,  and  we  were 
soon  engaged-  in  a  conversation  which  was  protracted  for  a 
couple  of  hours. 

I  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  him  how  insignificant  the  force 
opposed  to  him  in  his  attack  of  the  previous  day  was,  and 
asked  him  with  as  innocent  an  expression  as  I  could  assume, 
why  he  did  not  enter  Petersburg  after  passing  us  ? 

"  Only  because  I  did  not  know  how  I  could  get  out  again. 
The  failure  of  the  expedition  on  the  river  roads  which  was 
relied  on  to  support  me  made  it  n  \-  to  be  cautions,  and 

while  I  might  have  dashed  into  town  and  burned  some  proper- 
ty, I  might  have  lost  my  command." 

In  the  course  of  the  conversation  I  learned  that  he  was  a 
West  Pointer  ami  the  I  mate  of  General  Pickett,  as  well 

as  several  other  Confederate  officers  about  whom  he  inquired 
He  was  by  education  an  infantryman,  and  observed  that  he 
thought  the  government  had  spoiled  a  good  infantry  soldier 
by  giving  him  a  cavalry  command.  I  discovered  also  that  the 
Gh  neral  was  somewhat  piqued  at  his  failure  to  receive  credit 
with  the  Southern  people  for  what  lie  had  done.  He  claimed  to 
have  planned  and  led  the  expedition  that  resulted  inMorgan's 
capture  on  the  Ohio  the  year  before,  and  yet  had  hardly  been 
mentioned  in  connection  with  it.  But  what  surprised  him 
most  was  that  in  the  late  raid  which  he  had  made  around  the 
South  of  Petersburg,  his  name  had  escaped  notice  except  in 
one  or  two  instances,  where  it  was  mis-spelled,  while  the  credit 
or  discredit  of  the  expedition  was  divided  between  Colonel 
Spears  who  served  under  him  and  General  Custar,  who  was 
not  present. 

The  alleged  superiority  of  Yankee  cavalry  seemed  to  in- 
spire him  with  great  confidence  in  the  early  subjugation 
of  the  ''rebels,''  and  lie  did  not  b  to  express  the  opin. 


FIVE    MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  17 

ion  that  the  war  would  be  closed  by  successful  raids,  and  by 
the  greater  efficiency  and  better  discipline  of  that  branch  of 
the  Federal  .  in   actual  combat.     I  thought  of  all  this 

with  very  unchristian  satisfaction  some  months  later,  when 
Hampton  entered  the  Yankee  store-room  and  cut  out  splendid 
cattle  by  the  thousand  under  Kautz'a  very  nose,  and  again 
:  still,  a  week  or  two,  when  Hoke  captured  his  last 
gun,  and  sent  his  last  squadron  flying  in  irremediable  con- 
fusion, down  the  Darbytown  road,  to  the  very  foot  of  Birney's 
infantry. 

One  thing  I  found  General  Kautz  fully  impressed  with  and 
.  frank  to  acknowledge — the  splendid  lighting  qualities  of 
the  Simtheni  people.  "  I  may  safely  say  this/'  he  remarked 
in  the  coifrse  of  our  conversation,  "  whatever  be  the  issue  of 
this  Avar,  we  shall  have  a  higher  respect  for  your  courage  and 
military  skill    Tor  ever   h  r."     He  appeared  very  much 

annoyed  at  certain  acts  ol  outrage  committed  by  his  men  in 
Greensville  and  Surry,  on  his  last  raid,  of  which  he  heard  the 
.  as  he  informed  me,"  from  my  lips,  and  deplored  the  impos- 
sibility of  preventing  such  acts,  especially  among  cavalry, 
where  it  is  so  ea  ;;ve  and  return  to  the  column,  and  so 

alt  for  officers  to  prevent  misconduct. 

On  the  whole  I  was  quite  favorably  impressed  with  my  cap- 
tor, and   regard  my  interview  as  among  the  most  pleasant 
des  of  in}- sojourn  in  partibus  infidelium. 

The  arrival  of  Colonel  Spears  put  an  end  to  our  conference 
and  I  returned  to  my  comrades  to  find  the  hard  tack  dwindling, 
the  potatoes  gone  and  nothing  left  of  the  "  krout,"  but  an 
odor  so  strong  and  so  diabolical  that  I  am  firmly  per- 
suaded he  who  examines  that  log  hut  a  century  hence  will 
find  that : 

"  The  scent  of  tho  sour  krout  will  cliag  to  it  still." 

I  had  little  time  to  indulge  regrets,  however,  for  before  many- 
minutes  we  were  ordered  to  fall  in  for  General  Butlers  head- 
quarters, and  our  baggage  being  as  scant  as  that  of  the  Hiber- 
nian, who  refused  to  buy  a  trunk,  because,  if  he  put  anything 


IS  PRISONER   OE   WAR. 

in  it  he  would  have  to  go  naked,  we  soon  got  into  line  and  a 
half-tour's  march  brought  us  to  the  head-quarters  of  the 
Beast — a  personage  who  on  many  accounts  deserves  a  separate 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


MAJOR   GENERAL   BENJAMIN   F.    BUTLER. 
—  A  sedate,  a  thinking  villains  whose  black  bloc^d  rune  tem- 


perately bad." — Congreve.     Double  dealer. 

Off  for  Butler's  Quarters — Benevolence  of  Providence — Pen 
and  Ink  Sketch  of  the  Beast — Dialogue — The  Lawyer's  Hit — 
The  Contraband  Question — Jus  postliminium. 

On  approaching  Butler's  quarters,  which  were  quite  hand- 
somely located,  out  of  reach  of  all  intrusion,  the  first  thing 
that  attracted  attention  was  the  presence  and  prominence  of 
the  negro.  So  far  we  had  only  seen  one  or  two  of  the  negro 
soldiers  on  duty  at  the  pentoon  bridge,  and  the  night  being  as 
dark  as  themselves,  Ave  could  with  difficulty  distinguish  them 
but  there  Abysinia  ruled  the  roost.  It  was  "  nigger  "  every- 
where, and  altho'  the  white  soldiers  were  obviously  annoyed 
at  the  companionship,  the  terror  of  Butler's  rule  crushed  all  re- 
sistance even  of  opinion,  and  the  colored  brethren  knew,  and 
presumed  on,  their  secured  position  and  importance. 

"We  were  ranged  out  in  front  of  Lis  Majesty's  tent,  and 
there  kept  standing  hour  after  hour,  in  one  of  the  hottest  suns 
that  I  ever  felt  in  any  month  or  at  any  place.  ■  Most  of  the 
■party  were  men,  past  middle  age,  and  with  hardly  an  excep- 
tion they  had  had  but  one  meal,  and  that  a  miserable  one  for 
twenty-four  hours.  When  I  add  that  they  had  had  two  hours 
of  fighting  and  at  least  twenty?five  miles  of  marching  during 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  19 

the  same  interval,  arid  that  a  sufficient  shade  was  within  a 
couple  of  hundred  yards  of  cs,  it  may  be  easily  imagined 
that  our  first  impressions  of  "  the  brute"  were  not  coukur  <fo 
rose  by  any  means. 

The  afternoon  was  about  half  spent,  when  an  order  came 
for  the  first  three  men  in  line  to  report  to  him,  and  as  I 
chanced  to  head  the  list,  I  heard  my  name  handed  in  first  by 
his  orderly,  and  was  soon  summoned  into  the  General's  pres- 
ence. There  were  two  other  persons  in  the  tent,  one  a  clerk 
or  amanuensis  who  recorded  in  short-hand  the  somewhat  pro- 
tracted conversation  which  subsequently  ensued  ;  the  other  a 
complacent  individual  whose  only  and  obviously  agreeable 
occupation  consisted  in  admiring  his  new  uniform.  My  eyes 
were  of  course  fixed  principally  on  Butler,  and  the  first  and 
most  pervasive  thought  that  crossed  my  mind  was  one  of  pro- 
found gratitude  to  God  who  creates  no  mortal  enemy  to  man, 
without  clothing  it  with  features  that  excite  the  instant  and 
instinctive  aversion  of  the  entire  human  race.  How  deadly 
would  the  cobra  and  tarantula  be,  if  Providence  had  not  made 
them  as  loaihsome  as  they  are  venomous  ?  To  Benjamin  F. 
Butler's  face  scarce  an  element  is  wanting  of  absolute  repul- 
siveness.  Rapacity  finds  appropriate  expression  in  his  vul- 
ture nose — sensuality  in  his  heavy  pendant  jaws — despotism 
in  his  lowering  eye-brow,  and  to  these  facial  charms  is  added  an 
optical  derangement  which  pe]  ;mto  scrutinize  you  with 

his  left  eye — the  one  he  seems  to  place  most  dependence  on — 
while  the  right,  revolving  in  a  different  plane,  and  concerned, 
you  would  imagine,  about  separate  objects — wanders  away 
in  another  field  of  vision.  Add  to  this  a  cool,  audacious  com- 
placency of  speech  and  gesture  which  assures  you  that  he  is 
on  the  best  of  terms  with  his  portly  self,  and  I  fancy  you  will 
have  a  description  which,  if  not  accurate  enough  for  photo- 
graphy, will  at  least,  convince  you  that  Nature  has  hung 
out  the  sign  of  villain  in  every  lineament  of  the  Brute's  phy- 
siognomy, lie  lias  a  large  and  active  brain — far  the  most 
acute  of  any  that  New  England  has  contributed  to  this  war — 
a  voluble  tongue,,  pleasant  voice,  and  can  be,  they  say,  asgra- 


20  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

cious  as  "  the  mildest  mannered  man  that  ever  cut  a  throat  or 
scuttled  a  ship."  But  the  ineradicable  expression  of  his  fea- 
tures must  excite  suspicion  if  not  aversion,  however  impartial 
the  gazer.  It  is  popularly  supposed  that  his  defect  of  visual 
arrangement  constitutes  his  unattractiveness — but  this  is  a 
mistake.  Mere  physical  infirmity  is  only  a  negative  evil  to 
any  man  unless  it  constitutes  him  a  monster.  An  ugly  or  de- 
formed man  lacks  the  endorsement  of  Nature,  which  smooths 
the  way  for  his  more  favored  fellow,  but  in  time  he  counts  for 
whatever  he  is  worth.  John  Wilkes,  who  was  toothless,  cross- 
eyed and  otherwise  ugly,  was  wont  to  say  (and  cotemporaries 
assure  us  it  was  no  idle  boast)  "  give  me  twenty  minutes  con- 
versation and  I  will  beat  the  handsomest  man  in  a  race  for  the 
favor  of  the  finest  woman  in  England,"  and  History  is  full  of 
celebrated  and  attractive  men,  who  were  cursed  with  some 
personal  drawback.  Alexander  was  wry-necked,  Csesar  bald, 
Hannibal  and  Claudus  Civilis  one-eyed.  Homer,  Milton  and 
Huber  blind,  Beethoven  deaf,  Byron  club-footed,  Pope  and 
Scarron  horribly  crippled,  Alcibiades  a  stammerer,  who  could 
not  pronounce  "  r,"  Ovid  abnormal  in  the  nasal  department, 
Mirabeau  pock-marked  and  "  boar-headed,"  Atilla  and  Pepin 
dwaifs  with  enormous  heads,  Demosthenes  wry-shouldered 
and  a  stutterer,  Esop  a  hunchback,  and  the  list  might  be  ex- 
tended to  a  greater  length  than  is  geuerally  imagined,  yet 
among  these  were  some  of  the  most  popular,  and  agreeable, 
and  beloved  of  the  race.  In  the  corruscations  of  the  great 
Tribune's  magnetic  intellect,  women  forget  that  Mirabeau  was 
a  fright,  as  under  the  witchery  of  La  Valliere's  voice,  men 
thought  not  of  her  painful  lameness,  But  if  Butler  were  an* 
Antinous  with  his  present  expression  of  face,  he  might  reason- 
ably aspire  to  the  presidency  of  the  ugliest  of  all  the  Ugly 
Clubs.  Certainly  he  is  just  the  man  'who  would  delight  to 
torture  women — only,  I  presume,  preferring  if  he  could  have 
the  choice,  the  plundering  of  men.  Reverdy  Johnson  hoped 
to  be  the  Cicero  of  this  Verres,  but  the  catalogue  of  his  satrap's 
villainies  was  so  black  that  even  his  callous  master  could  not 
stomach  the  exposition,  and  the  obnoxious  truths  were  sup- 


five  months  among  the. yaxkees.  21 

pressed.  The  experiment  was  repeated  by  the  Yankee  Vir- 
ginian, but  the  Brute  laughed  at  the  helpless  indignation  of 
his  feebler  foe,  and  pursued  his  speculations  and  peculations 
in  sublime  indifference  to  all  criticism  that  did  not  cut  off  his 
supplies. 

That  he  established  and  maintained  order  in  New  Orleans 
and  Norfolk,  is  undeniable — but  it  was  such  order  as  reigned 
in  Sicily  in  days  of  old,  and  in  Warsaw,  in  later  times — the 
order  of  sullen,  abject,  physical  fear— a  political  coma,  which 
is  itself  death. 

But  1  beg  unlimited  pardon,  oh,  impatient  reader,  for  all 
this  sermonizing.  So,  I  give  my  prosy  Pegasus  a  rowelling, 
whereat  the  old  cob  frisks  his  tail,  and  puts  himself  out  for  a 
faster  pace. 

Quite  a  length}' conversation  ensued  between  myself  and 
Butler,  (Mem.  I  have  reflected  on  the  subject  and  do  not 
think  common  self-respect  will  allow  me  to  place  his  name 
first.)  which  proceeded  on  this  wise, — the  clerk  busily  re- 
cording it  all. 

"  What  is  your  name?  " 

<••  Mr.  Blank." 

"  Your  profession  or  pursuit  ?  " 

"  I  am  a  lawyer." 

"  You  were  captured  yesterday,  near  Petersburg  ?  " 

"  I  was." 

"How  many  men  were  in  the  trenches  with  you?" 

'•'  About  one  hundred  and  twenty  or  thirty." 

"All  militiamen?  " 

"  All,  with  less  than  half  a  dozen  exceptions." 

"  And  you  repulsed,  I  learn,  for  two  hours  General  Kautz's 
Brigade  of  Cavalry  ?  " 

"  You  have  been  rightly  informed." 

*  *  •::■  *  *  *  -:•;•  * 

(Here  ensue  in   energetic  expressions  respecting  the 

aforesaid  cavalry,  which  bordered  on  the  extremely  profane.) 

"Well  Mr.  Blank,"—  and  Sere  he  .-'i.1  forward  in  hie  chair, 


22  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

till  his  head  rested  on  the  back,  and  lighted  a  cigar, — "will 
.you  tell  me  how  many  soldiers  were  in  Petersburg  at  the  time 
of  General  Kautz's  first  appearance  ?  " 

Now  the  truth  was,  that  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and 
belief,  there  was  not,  at  that  time,  in  town  as  much  of  a  sol- 
dier as  would  entitle  the  government  to  declare  martial  law, 
and  every  one  knows  a  half  a  conscript  would  serve  that 
purpose.  So  I  bethought  me  that  mystery  was  my  cue,  and 
replied  with  affected  solemnity : 

"  I  decline  answering." 

"  Oh,  you  need  not  decline.  I  know  there  was  not  a  sol- 
dier there." 

"  Well,  sir,  there  is  no  need  to  ask,  if  you  know ;  but  I  am 
curious  to  know  how  you  know  that  ?  " 

"  By  this  infallible  induction :  if  there  was  a  soldier  in 
town,  no  lawyer  would  get  into  the  trenches ! " 

I  joined  in  the  smile  that  followed, — and  which  Butler  en- 
joyed hugely, — more  in  compliment  to  the  truth  than  the  wit 
of  his  inference,  and  replied  : 

"  You  speak  of  Northern  lawyers,  I  presume.  "We  have 
contributed  our  full  share  to  this  fight  for  freedom.  If  I  may 
speak  of  myself,  I  entered  the  service  on  the  19th  April 
1861,  and  thousands  of  the  profession  volunteered  as  early." 

"  Yes,  yes,  I  understand  all  that.  I  volunteered  three  days 
before  you,  but  I  never  got  into  the  trenches,  and  by  the  help  of 
Heaven,  I  never  shall.  That  is  quite  another  matter,  you 
perceive." 

He  here  took  up  a  note  from  his  desk,  held  it  within  four 
inches  of  his  left  eye — what  marvel  that  a  man  should  have 
a  sinister  expression,  whose  vision  is  left-handed  ? — and  con- 
tinued : 

"  I  would  like  to  know  the  position  of  your  government, 
and  particularly  of  your  people,  on  the  subject  of  negro  ex- 
change. I  have  just  received  this  note  from  Colonel  Ould,  in 
which  the  question  is  not  met'at  all,  and  it  is  now  a  month 


FIV.E   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  23 

since  I  applied  for  a  categorical  statement  of  the  position  of 
Mr.  Davis's  government  on  this  topic." 

"  As  I  Lave  no  official  character,  I  am  of  course  not  en- 
titled to  speak  by  authority,  and  as  to  the  President's  indi- 
vidual views,  I  know  nothing." 

"  Of  course,  sir,  I  know  you  are  not  a  commissioner,  but  I 
would  be  glad  to  hear  your  views.  I  think  a  white  man  is 
as  good  as  a  negro,  and  would  be  willing  to  give  one  of  your 
negroes,  if  a  soldier,  for  one  of  my  white  soldiers.  But  your 
government  takes  the  position  that  the  negro  is  better  than  a 
white  man,  and  you  will  not  give  up  one  of  my  negroes  to 
get  back  one  of  your  best  soldiers." 

"  My  government,  I  presume,  takes  no  such  absurd  posi- 
tion— she  merely  contends  that  the  right  of  property  in  a 
slave,  is  no  more  affected  by  his  running  away  to  your  army, 
than  by  his  flying  to  your  states,— least  of  all  by  your  kidnapp- 
ing. You  are  entitled  to  demand  the  exchange  of  your  neoro 
soldiers,  not  slaves,  just  as  England  would  be  entitled  to 
claim  her  Sepoys,  and  France  her  Algerines,  in  the  event  of 
war  between  us  and  either  of  those  powers.  But,  both  your 
constitution  and  your  positive  statutory  enactments,  guard  the 
title  of  the  owner  against  disturbance  from  any  quarter  with- 
out the  jurisdiction  of  the  master's  state." 

"Ah,  yes,  but  that  is  '  of  peace.     You  claim  the 

slave  as  a  chattel ;  now,  if  I  capture  land  and  it  is  re-cap- 
tured, it  reverts  to  the  original  owner,  but  if  I  capture  a 
chattel,  a  house  for  example,  on  its  recapture  it  becomes  the 
property,  not  of  the  original  owner,  but  of  your  government, 
and  is  doubtless  so  treated.  Thus  the  capture  of  realty,  di- 
vests title  only  during  occupancy;  the  capture  of^erson- 
alty,  divests  it  forever.  How  do  you  make  the  slave  an 
exception  ?  " 

"There  is  plainly  no  reason  in  the  nature  of  things,  why 
one  description  of  property  should  be  less  sacred  than  another, 
and  the  discrimination  against  personal  property  only  arises, 
I  presume,  from  the  difficulty  of  identification,— which  does 


24  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

not  exist  in  the  case  of  the  slave.  Hence,  the  Roman  law,  if 
I  rightly  remember,  excepted  slaves,  and  common  sense  ex- 
cepts them.  So,  I  presume,  would  any  property  be  treated 
that  could  be  easily  and  certainly  identified.  For  example,  a 
Federal  general  goes  to  New  Orleans,  or  Norfolk,  and  steals 
my  house  and  all  that  it  contains, — furniture,  pictures, 
clothing,  jewelry,  everything, — but  before  he  has  a  chance 
to  send  them  to  his  wife  in  Boston,  or  New  York,  the 
city  is  re-captured,  I  presume  my  government  would  re- 
store me  my  house  with  all  its  contents,  and  the  conquering 
general  would  hardly  think  of  holding  an  auction  on  my 
premises." 

"1  am  not  certain  that  he  would  not  have  the  right.  But 
how  do  you  answer  this  ?  Public  law  authorizes  the  United 
States  to  declare  that  a  slave  fleeing  to  her  shall  be  free :  she 
so  does  declare  in  the  case  of  every  slave  that  comes  to 
her." 

"I  answer  that  by  denial,  first  of  the  fact  and  then  of  the 
right.  And  though  both  were  true,  I  do  not  see  how  they 
could  affect  the  power  of  our  own  government  and  laws,  to 
re-establish  the  original  relation,  when  all  parties  come  again 
within  their  jurisdiction." 

"  Well,  sir,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  our  governments  can- 
not agree  about  this,  as  there  will  be  no  more  exchange,  and 
no  communication  till  the  point  is  yielded." 

"  How  is  it  then,  General,  that  while  you  made  this  demand 
on  my  government  a  month  ago,  you  continue  to  communi- 
cate, as  I  see  from  Colonel  Ouid:s  dispatch? ': 

■'  Oh,  Mr.  Davis  moves  very  slowly,  and  I  was  giving  him 
time  to  make  up  his  mind.  He  has  now  had  abundant  time, 
and  I  am  going  to  stop  all  intercourse." 

Our  conversation  then  took  quite  a  wide  range,  during 
which  I  re-called  to  his  memory  his  own  secession  at  Balti- 
more, from  a  certain  Democratic  convention,  and  indulged  in 
some  references  not  altogether  complimentary  to  the  cruelty 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG    THE   YANKEES.  25 

and  avarice*  of  Federal  generals.  This  seemed  to  provoke 
his  wrath,  and  he  dismissed  me  with  the  emphatic  and  dis- 
agreeable instruction,  that  my  impris  would  end  with 
the  war !     Dii             visum,  my  dear  Brute. 


CHAPTER   V.  ' 

To    i  '    Hundred; — The    "Orderly"   Disease — Under 

Negro     Guard — A    Cold     Nap — Down     the    James — Falling 
amonj  Thieves — 0  Point  Lookout. 

I  was  now  dismissed,  and  two  or  three  of  my  comrades 
puccessively  summoned  before  him,  but  he  contented  himself, 
as  they  told  me,  with  a  question  or  two,  respecting  the  num- 
ber of  our  soldiers  in  the  city. 

The  scorching  sun  was  well  on  the  wane  when  we  ao-ain 
Struck  the  trail, — this  time  for  Bermuda  Hundreds,  some 
two  miles  oil'.  Sundry  mounted  officials  passed  us,  wonder- 
ing very  much  at  the  civilian  appearance  of  our  squad,  and 
I  began  then  to  observe  the  first  indications  of  the  "  orderly  " 
epidemic  which  I  afterwards  found  to  be  a  universal  afllic- 
tion  of  the  Yankee  military,  Everyone  has  an  "  order  lv," 
from  the  Lieutenant  General,  down  to  the  most  subordinate 
pedler  in  tracts  and  •  ginger-bread,  that  wears  the  badge  of 
the  Sanitary  or  the  Christian  commission.  To  ride  a  mile 
without  an   obsequious  varlet   in   your   wake,   whose  chief 

*  The  rapacity  of  the  New  England  generals  is  conspicuous.  Butler 
is  omniverou?,  butNeal  Dow's  passion  was  furniture.  Being  quite  ill 
once,  one  of  his  officers  asked  the  surgeon  who  attended  him,  what  was 
the  matter '(  "  Only  an  unusual  meal  of  furniture;  but  as  I  got  him 
to  throw  up  a  bureau  and  a  rocking-chair,  I  think  be  will  recover," 
was  the  reply.  It  was  a  standing  joke  among  "Western  soldiers,  that 
General  Bow  had  furniture  (as  Butler  has  nigger,)  ou  the  bruia. 

•1 


2(J  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

business  seems  to  bo  to  intercept  the  mud  from  your  horse's 
heels,  is  a  humiliation  wftich  no  "free  and  equal"  cavalier  of 
the  Great  Republic  could  brook  an  instant;  so,  from  com- 
missary to  commander-in-chief;  there's  a  Sancho  for  every 
Don.  I  attributed  this  weakness  to  the  novelty  of  the  posi- 
tion of  most  of  these  Yanks.  .To  the  Southern  people  their 
educatiqm  and  labor-system  gives  the  habit  of  command,  and 
they  attach  little  importance  to  ion  of  a  serv, 

from  the  ility  of  the  .fact  of  lion.     .>ut  most 

ol  the  Yan]  •  '  had  the  power  to 

to  this  uiir,  .g.  "  come,"  and  to  the  other, 

"do  this,"  and  as  all  cv  lake  deb 

in  the  J  '  sueh  a  |  It  is  not,  perhaps,  surprising 

that  these  Cedrics  n  how  of  their  "born  thralls"  on 

all  occasions :  and,  sooth  to  cay,  Gurth  wears  his  collar  v 
most  servile  satisfaction. 

Past  these  masters  and  i  St    crowds  of  sutlers  and 

cam})  followers)  past  thiops,  dj 

nous,  and  idle,  we  vein  to  the  river,  w!r 

was  marked  out  to  us  1  i  scores  of  masts,  an'd 

fwili  'lit  of  a  Pi;.om  i 

I's  office .  'l!y  to  our  na 

Were  turned  over  to  a  i  hority.     A   frame    building-, 

whose  only  otho  irons,  was  allot 

to  us.for  the  night,  ;  iiiiDg  myself  in  a  window,  1  be- 

ga*,    in    the    little    light   still    left,    to    amuse    myself  > 
drawing  a  erayon  likeness  of  Butl 

I  noticed  that  our  new  guards  were  black/  An  odorous 
Congo,  with  a  c  two-thirds  his  length,  a  Nubian  n 

boundless  buttons,  and  the  port  of  Soulouo'ue  was  strutting 
up  and  down  before  me  in  most  amusing  enjoyment  of  his 
responsible  position.  Like  every  other  negro  soldier  I  met, 
■with  three  exceptions,  he  was  as  black  as  Mason's  "  Chal- 
lenge/1 and  as  surly  looking  a  dog  as  ever  brake  bread.  Be- 
fore he  had  been  on  duly  ten  minutes  he  picked  a  quarrel 
"with  a  brother  black  who  dared  to  cross  his  post,  and 
straightway  both  drew  their  sabres  to  my  infinite  satisfaction, 


FIVE  ',-  av<.v.  27 

as  I  presumed  I  was   about   60    bo  a  panicle  of 

ebony  chivalry  a  . !,  to 

great   grief,  that  the  sa  :  only 

impetus  and  a  finish  to  a  fusillade  of  oaths,  which,  for  num- 
ber, force,  and  unrelieved  prafifciity,  I  neves  'lied 
nil.  once.     On  our  return  from  Gettysburg,  while  i 
the  mountains,  I  saw  a  iir^i  class  arm                             res  of 

•ous  blocked    op   in  a  narrow  mountain-way  on   a  down 
grade  of  about  two  tin  feet  to  the  rnile>— everything 

with   wheels  running  into   everything  else,    and  a   herd   of 
Pennsylvania   1  ing   up   the  small   and   constantly 

varying  intervals  between  the  .     Then  broke  forth 

■  rained    Lungs,  and    exhi  bulary  of  a 

.  SUeh   a  t,  aval.;!! 

Iwind,  yea,  "  of  impreca 

competition  of  the  must  terrible  swearing  in  Flanders.     The 

;  expletives,  m  whioli  '  finds  vent  witb 

■  mortals,  found  in  that  Lodore  o  ■.••, — 

were  obvioui  '/,   thdi  , — and  a 

and 
!  '  me  and  tail 

aal   mule   and   nwileteer  in   all  tl 
while  the  inter*.-  * 

fillip,  from  the  fact  that  we  had  to .  < 
■   Of  this  st:  b    left  bu  .    i,«ohes 

i If  a 
ad  feet  sheer !     ''  ,  ear- 

before  or  si 
illy   since   my  capture   has 

Getting  an  old  - 

er  of  our  jail,  and,  without  blanl 

head   on  M 
of  June,   are  |  ur- 

heat,  exposure  a.  .ise 

of  tl  .1   fell    i  em 

which  I 


28  PRISONER   OF    WAR. 

woke;  just  in  time  to  save  myself  from  a  plunge  through,  a 
treacherous  seal-hole  into  the  Polar  sea!  I  found  myself 
chilled  through  and  stiff  n  ith  "cold.  There  was  no  lire  to  be 
had,  and  the  darkey  at  the  door  incontinently  refused  to  per- 
mit me  to  walk  out,  so  I  was" constrained  to  restore  circula- 
tion by  certain  frantic  gymnastics,  in  which  I  was,  before 
long,  joined  by  sundry  comrades  similarly  uncomfortable. 

Like  everything  sublunary  (except  Coleridge's  sermons,) 
the  night  came,  perforce,  to  an  end,  and  we  were  allowed  to 
go  out,  two  at  a  time,  to  wash  our  faces, — a- rather  superflu- 
ous ceremony  in  the  absence  of  soap  and  towels,  and  the  most 
striking  necessity  for  both.  Salt-junk,  coffee  and  as  much 
"hard  tack"  as  we  wanted,  were  issued  to  us  by  our  "col- 
ored brefehern,"  and  at  8^  a.  m.,  a  guard  of  twenty,  from  iJae 
same  regiment, — the  1st  U.  S.  Colored  Cavalry,— formed 
around  us  with  drawn  swords, — a  white  officer  at  their  head, — 
and,  thus  convoyed,  we  proceeded  aboard  a  fine  river  boat, 
the  "John  A.  Warren." 

A  few  minutes  after  getting  aboard,  an  officer  came  from 
shore  with  a  dispatch  from  General  Butler,  commanding  the 
return  of  three  of  our  party  (whom  he  designated  by  name,) 
to  his  head-quarters.  This  manoeuvre,  I  believe,  never  re- 
ceived satisfactory  explanation  :  the  men  were  detained 
several  days  by  Butler,  and  eventually  sent  to  the  same 
orison  with,  the  rest  of  us.  Before  another  half  hour  passed 
we  heard  the  tinkle  of  the  engineer's  bell,  the  gang  plank 
was  drawn  aboard,  the  paddles  began  to  revolve,  lines  were 
cast  off,  and  we  felt  indeed  that  we  were  turning  our  backs 
on  home.  It  wTas  the  "  bluest  "  moment  of  mjr  imprison- 
ment. There  seemed  such  a  cruel  injustice  in  tearing  a  party 
of  men,  some  of  whose  heads  wore  the  gray  honors  of  many 
a  winter,  from  families  and  friends,  and  all  that  men  hold 
dear,  for  the  crime  alone  of  standing  before  their  own  hearths 
and  homes,  and  resisting  assassins  and  burglars,  bent  upon 
the  desecration  of  both,  that  I  called  in  vain  on  philosophy 
for  consolation,  and  as  we  glided  along  by  the  well-remem- 
bered  and  ancient  plantations  of  our  beautiful  river,  seen 


FIVE   MONTHS  AMONG  THE   YAXKEE3.  20 

then  the  first  time  for  three  years,  and  to  be  seen  again 

alas,  when  I  I  recalled  the  days  when  those  deserted  and 
wasted  mansions  were  the  abode  of  a  courtly,  generous  hos- 
pitality, worthy  of  the  baronial  days  of  "memo.  England," 
until  I  filled  my  mind  and  heart  with  such  memories  and 
such  regrets  as  are  wont  to  moisten  sterner  eyes  than  mine. 

We  sailed  past  two  long  pontoon  rafts,  in  preparation  for 
the  move  of  General  Grant  across  the  river,  soon  to  take 
place  with  such  pomp  and  trumpeting,  past  the  cloud  of 
transports,  that  the  supply  of  his  vast  army,  so  soon  to  change 
its  base,  demanded:  past  the  Atlanta,  so  easily  captured  not 
long  before  in  the  Savannah,  and  a  little  before  5,  came 
abreasl  of  Newports  News,  and  in  sight  of  Old  Point  and  the 
ami  fleet  of  Hampton  Roads.  When  I  saw  that  harbor 
again,  there  were  two  thousand  guns  upon  it,  and  such  an 
Armada  as  the  world  never  saw  before*  Landed,  we  were 
again  marched  before  a  Provost  Marshal,  and  required  to 
answer  onr  names,  and  then,  under  our  negro  guard,  marched* 
to  cam])  Hamilton,  a  little  West  of  the  large  structure  form- 
erly known  as  the  Chesapeake  Female  College,  of  Hampton. 

This  "camp"  is  a  two-story  wooden  barrack,  with  a 
yard,  the   whole  surrounded   with   a  fence,  :  feet 

high.     Into  this  enclosure  we  were  marched,  - 
cued  out,  and   the   perennial   roll-calling  again  gone  through 
with,  and  then  we  were  dismissed  and  told  to  find  room  to 
sleep  in,  as  best  we  could. 

I  had  hardly  left  the  ranks,  when  a  jolly  sou  of  Erin a 

Federal  soldier— stepped  up  to  me,  beckoned  me  aside,  and 
informed  me   that  the  lower  story  of  the  building  was  occu- 
pied by  Yankee  prisoners,  incarcerated  for  various  villainies, 
and  that  into  that  apartment  I  must,  under  no    circumstance 
venture,  as  they  garroted  and  robbed  every  Uoni  sol- 

dier  they  could  inveigle  into  their  dvn.  1  asked,  with  some 
surprise,  whether  complaint  was  never  made.     "<  .""  ]1C 

said,  "gremies  do  complain,  and  the  laugh   in  their 

faces."  I  needed  no  farther  Warning,  and  steered  clear  of  the 
"below  stairs"  in   that    mansion.      Five   minutes   had   not 


ZO  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

elapsed  before  one  of  our  party  emerged  from  that  lower 
door,  swearing  like  an  irate  moss-trooper.  One  of  the  Yan- 
kees had  offered  him  some  coffee,  for  which  he  was  of  course 
very  grateful,  and  invited  him  in  to  drink  it ;  but  he  had  hardly 
entered  the  den  before  a  blanket  was  thrown  over  his  head, 
and  he  was  pulled  to  the  earth,  his  pockets  rifled,  and  even 
the  gold  buttons  wrenched  from  his  shirt ! 

I  thought  it  time  to  get  up-stairs  among  some  honest  Con- 
federates, and  so  mounted  to  the  second  story,  where  I  had 
the  good  fortune  to  meet  two  old  friends  who  had  been  incar- 
cerated there  some  time,  and  who  having  learned  the  ropes, 
had  made  themselves  comfortable.  They  very  kindly  gave 
me  a  bunk  and  a  good  supper,  for  both  of  which  they  have 
now,  as  they  had  then,  my  benediction,  and  having  washed 
my  face  after  a  civilized  fashion,  I  turned  in  to  a  sleep  which 
the  excitements  of  the  past  three  days  made  very  desiral 
— and  very  profound.  The  next  day  was  Sunday,  our  first 
•in  prison. 

"I  think  that  those  people,  the  rituals  of  whose  churches 
comprise  prayers  for  the  captives,  never  utter  those  petite 
with  sufficient  unction.     I'll  mend  my  fervor  in  that  be! 
hereafter."     Such  is  the  memorandum  in  my  diary,  u; 
date  of  June  12th.     I  commend  it  pious  reader  of  mine,   to 
your  attention — make  a  note  on't. 

There  is,  in  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  an  order  called 
the  Redenrptorists,  whose  members,  besides  taking  the  m 
monastic  obligations  of  Poverty,  Chastity  and  Obedience, 
bound  themselves  by  a  vow,  to  dedicate  their  lives  to  the  re- 
demption of  captives,  particularly  those  taken  by  the  Moors  ; 
and  so  faithfully  did  they  devote  themselves  to  this  pious  vo- 
cation, that  in  the  event  of  any  of  them  failing  to  compass 
otherwise,  the  release   of  at  least  one  captive,  he  consid< 
himself  bound  to  volunteer  to  take  the  place  of  some  christian 
prisoner  thus  confined,  and  restore  him,  thereby,  to  his 
ily.     Cases  of  this   wonderful   self-denial   were   of  constant 
occurrence,  and  strange  to  say,  the  barbarians  kept  faith  with 
the  good  monks   with  surprising  scrupulousness.     We  con- 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  31 

eluded,  while  in  bonds,  that  something  of  that  sort  was  des- 
perately needed  at  the  present  day,  only  the  Yankees  would 
scarcely  be  as  honest  as  the  pirates. 

About  sun-down,  we  were  marched  back  to  Old  Point,  and 

with  a  hundred  or  more  compatriots,  huddled   into  the  bow 

of  the  "  Louisiana,"  a  well-known  boat  of  the  old  Bay  Line  to 

Baltimore.     Here  it  was  our  fortune  to  succeed  in  the  teu- 

of  our   premises,  to  an  invoice  of  h  sought  down 

t    On    her  preceding    trip,   and    any  tiling  being 

1  enough  for  the  rebels,  the  ceremonies,  usual  on 

verting   a   stable  into  a  human  habitation,  were  dii 

:!     In  these  savory  quarters  we  were  packed  away  ;  the 

Ding  fortress  with   her  diadem  of  cannon  sopn  faded  into 

,m  r.  and  by  11  o'clock,  we  made  Point  Lookout.     V 

so   called;  I   am  at  a  loss  to  im:  there  is 

notliing  in  t  p.ect  to  make  the  most  curious  inhabitant 

■my  direction.     This    n  ■  lire 

has  puzzled  wiser  heads  than  mine,  and  I  am  free  to   admit 
that  Point  Lookout  is  far  from  an  exceptional  ease.     A  cev- 
group  of  islands  in  the  Pacific  is  denominated  "  Societ}7," 
I  no  society  there,  I  suppose,  aud  another,  de- 
id  "  Frie  itliough  the  kind< 
m  to  strangers  is  to  eat  the 
is  a  non  lucendo.     The  tide  being  down,  wo  were 

-  of  a  little  tug  that  e-  fling  and  fusi 

and  hungry,  sleepy   and  half  frozen,  we  set  our 
et  on  the  friendly  shores  of  "  Maryland,  my  Maryla 


CHAPTER  VI. 


'  e  Cold— Seard nng  the  "  Reb  "—17ieP<  nined 

to  in  >,  ,<  " — A  friend  in  need — Prison  Demoralization. 

It  w.  M'tune  to  fall  straightway  into  the  han 

amp.     It  was  scarcely  midnight  when  we  landed 
on  a  long  pier,  which  jutting  out  into  the  P  •  caught  the 


o2  rrasoxER  of  war. 

full  sweep  of  the  sharp  Nor' Wester,  that  screamed  and  rattled 
down  the  channel  of  the  river.  The  guard  though  comforta- 
bly clad  and  furnished  with  heavy  overcoats,  suffered  acutely, 
and  altho'  the  officer  which  met  us  as  we  landed  told  them  that 
we  coukt  not  he  received  until  morning,  the  soldiers  did  not 
imagine  that  their  duty  required  them  to  stay  themselves,  or 
keep  their  prisoners  on  the  exposed  extremity  of  the  long 
wharf,  and  they  accordingly  marched  us  to  land.  Huddling 
ourselves  together  we  were  endeavoring  to  coax  a  wink  from 
Morpheus,  when  some  ill  wind  blew  the  receiving  officer,  Lieu- 
tenant Phillips,  again  before  us.  He  straightway  opened  a 
torrent  of  profane  abuse  upon  Ua  and  upon  our  guard,  ordered 
them  to  take  us  inimediatly  back  to  the  end  of  the  pier,  and 
waited  to  see  his  orders  executed,  breathing  unmentionable 
execrations  against  the  whole  of  us.  Shivering  and  utterly 
miserable,  we  were  marched  back,  and  spent  the  night  in  vain 
efforts  to  find  heat  in  exercise— sleep  being  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. The  guards  themselves  with  blanket  and  overcoat 
complained  bitterly  of  the  fierce  blast,  while  Ave  had  to  endure 
it  in  light  summer  costumes,  some  even  without  a  ooat  or 
roundabout.  The  hours  dragged  heavily  on,  and  not  until  7 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  were  Ave  alloAved  to  come  oil'  the  river. 
Another  Provost  Marshal's  o^cc  soon  hove  in  sight,  before 
which  avc  were  ranged  in  a  double  rank  and  the  inevitable  roll- 
call  again  iblloAved.  All  being  right,  Lieutenant  Phillips,  our 
Avorthy  of  the  night  before,  appeared  again,  rejoicing  in  mut- 
ton-chop whiskers,  and  a  grape  vine  cane,  and  in  a  gruff,  per- 
emptory A'oiee,  ordered  the  first  four  of  us  to  step  out  to  be 
searched.  This  Avas  accomplished  by  himself  and  a  couple  of 
assistants,  and  consisted  in  turning  the  contents  of  our  pockets 
on  the  ground,  and  then  taking  off  all  our  clothing  except  Avhat 
was  absolutely  next  the  skin,  and  'part  of  that  also.  This  Avas 
done  to  enable  the  examiners  to  search  thoroughly  our  per- 
sons for  money — a  conimodit}'-  Avhich  Avas  pretty  generally 
stolen  at  Point  Lookout,  either  formally  or  informally — and 
in  case  of  Lieutenant  Phillips,  this  ceremony  was  usually  va- 
ried by  tearing  the  lining  out  of  the  hats  and  pantaloons  of 


FIVE  MONTHS  AMONG  THE  YANKEES.  83 

such  unfortunates  as  fell  particularly  to  his  lot.  Some  of  his 
aids  were  discharging  their  duty  too  gingerly  for  his  notions 
of  official  obligation,  and  hailing  them  with  "that's  no  way  to 
search  d — d  rebels,"  he  proceeded  to  illustrate  by  unusual  vio- 
lence of  conduct,  what  he  thought  the  proper  way — sundry 
seams  suffered  in  consequence.  This  rifle  practice  having  been 
continued  until  all  our  valuables  were  taken  from  us,  Ave  were 
graciously]  I    to  dress  ourselves,  and  the  line  being 

formed  once  more,  we  were  nun-died  off  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
to  "THE  PEN." 

The  military  prison,  or  rather  prisons,  at  Point  Lookout, 
consist  of  two  enclosures,  the  One  containing  about  thirty,  the 
other  about  ten  acres  of  (hit  sand,  on  the  Northern  shore  of 
the  Potomac  at  its  mouth,  but  a  few  inches  above  high-tide, 
and  utterly  innocent  of  tree,  shrub  or  any  natural  equivalent 
for  the  same.  Each  is  surrounded  by  a  fence  about  fifteen 
feet  high,  facing  inwards,  around  the  top  of  which  on  the  out- 
er face,  and  about  twelve  feet  from  the  ground,  runs  a  plat- 
form on  which  twenty  or  thirty  sentinels  are  posted,  keeping 
watch  and  ward,  night  and  day,  over  the  prisoners  within. 
Besides  these  precautions,  a  si  r  i  >d  palisade  stretches 

across  the  tongue  of  land  on  which  the  prisons  stand,  from 
the  bay  on  the  North  East,  to  the  Pototnacon  the  South  West. 
"Within  this  palisade,  but  of  course  outside  of  the  "  pens,"  are 
usually  two  regiments  of  infantry,  and  a  couple  of  batteries 
of  artillery,  and  without  the  fortification  two  or  three  com- 
panies of  cavalry,  while,  riding  at  anchor  in  the  bay,  one  gun- 
boat at  least  may  always  be  seen.  One  face  of  each  of  these 
"pens,"  the  Eastern,  fronts  the  bay,  and  gates  lead  from  the 
enclosures  to  a  narrow  belt  of  land  between  the  fence  and 
the  water,  which  is  free  to  the  prisoners  during  the  dajr, 
piles  being  driven  into  the  bay  on  either  hand  to  prevent  any 
dexterous  "reb"  from  flanking  out.  A  certain  portion  of  the 
water  is  marked  off  by  stakes  driven  into  the  bottom,  for 
bathing  purposes,  and  most  of  the  prisoners  gladly  avail 
themselves  of  the  privilege  thus  afforded;  although,  as  the 
same  locality  precisely  and  exclusively,  is  devoted  to  the  re- 


8-i  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

ception  of  all  tlie  filth  of  the  camp,  I  admit  a   squeamishness 
which  deprived  me  of  sea  bathing  as  long  as  I  staid  there. 

Allans  mes  amis  .'  we  have  been  outside  as  long  as  the  gentle- 
man of  the  grape-vine  and  mutton-chop  will  permit — let  us 
enter^. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  you  as  peculiarly  prominent 
within  the  fence  is  a  row  of  eight  or  ten  wooden  buildings, 
jutting  out  from  the  Western  face  of  the.  Feu,  a  hundred  feet 
long,  perhaps,  by  eighteen  in  width,  and  one  story  high,  with 
four  tables  running  down  the  entire  length  of  each.  At  the 
end  next  the  fence,  a'  partition  divides  off  about  twelve  feet 
of  the  structure.  These  are  the  Mess  Rooms  and  cook  houses. 
Here  all  the  public  cooking  and  eating  of  the  premises  is  con- 
ducted. A  street,  twenty  feet  in  width,  ri  ■  >■  long  the  front 
of  these  houses,  and  at  right  angles  to  this  street,  run  long 
rows  of  tents  of  all  imaginable  pattern-,  and  of  no  pattern  at 
all,  to  within  twenty  or  thirty  feet  of  the  opp<  se  of  the 

enclosure.  Each  of  these  rows  of  tents  is  designed  to  con- 
tain one  thousand  prisoners,  and  at  the  time  of  our  advent, 
there  were  ten  of  these  nearly  filled,  and  another  just  begun. 
We  were  assigned  to  various  "divisions,"  as  the  rows  of  tents 
are  called,  and  dismissed.  I  was  informed  that  Co.  "B,"  4th 
Division,  was  my  ''command,"  and  reporting  forthwith  to  the 
Sergeant  of  the  same,  he  designated  my  place'  as  No.  lo,  in 
a  dirty  Sibley  tent,  which  the  tenants,  from  some  freak, 
strongly  suggestive  of  danger,  however,  had  christened  and 
duly  labelled,  the  "  Lyon's  Den."  (I  disclaim  all  responsi- 
bility for  the  orthography. ) 

I  approached  the  structure  with  about  as  heavy  a  heart  as 
any  unregenerate  Daniel  might  be  supposed  to  possess  on  pre- 
sentation to  a  location  with  so  fearful  a  name,  but  the  sight 
that  met  my  eyes  as  I  stooped  to  pass  in,  barred  my  further 
'progress.  It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  more  particularly  inte> 
details  than  to  intimate  that  my  prospective  mess-mates  were 
anxiously  on  the  war-path  after  certain  animals  of  the  para- 
site order,  whose  name — infandum — has  the  same  origin  as 
that  of  la  helk passion  !     Mariu;-,  amid  the  ruins  of  Carthage: 


FIVE    MOXTIIS   AMOXG    THE    YANKEES.  o5 

Belisarius,  begging  the  ol  Coriolanus,  when  his  ma  was 

plaguing  him,  or  the   first  instant  of  her 

discovering  that  Flora  McF's.  lace  was  a  half  inch  deeper 
than  her  own — not  I  any  or  all  of  these,   (except 

possibly  the  last,)  could  equal  the  mute  misery  with  which 
hungry,  slee;  fcy,   tired,   angry,  robbed,  and  rebellious,  I 

stalked  ■  id  a  half  can  stalk,)  away,  with 

h  and  a  groan,  from  on's  Don.  " 

I  had  nM  gone  -  T  was  hailed  by  name  in  a  voice 

perfectly  familiar,  though  1  had  not  heard  it  before  for  some 

time,  and  turnin  ction  whence  it  came,  saw  a  well 

»wn  face,  my  vis-a-vi  in  many  a  game  of  "pri- 

."  in  the  blissful  days  of  boyhood. 
I  think  lie  must  have  known  intuitively  both  the  character 
and  the  depth    of  m  of  his   first  question  was: — 

"  W here  are  your  quarters."  I  mentioned  the  dread  name 
with  a  sickl;  ;  at  a  smile,  which   was  a  signal  failure, 

when,  my  friend,  ;s  ten  months  ri  I   the  prison,  invited 

me  around  to  his  domicile)  until  I  could  bet- 

ter pro"\  If.     Several  of  ray  companions  were  similar- 

ly favored,  and  those  who  were  not,  were  provided  generally 
with  new  tents  and  allowed  to  make  up  their  own  messes. 

Sleep  was  what  1  wanted  most,  so  borrowing  v  blanket 
from  my  good  Samaritan,  I  availed  myself  of  his  invitation, 
and  before  many  minutes  was  happily  indifferent  to  all  terres- 
trial affairs.  Physiologists  have  a  mused  themselves  with  re- 
oording  the  order  in  which  the  several  senses  go  to  sleep  :  my 
own  opinion  is  that,  under  such  circumstances,  they  make  a 
lumping  business  of  It,  and  fall  by  platoons ;  certainly  such  was 
my  experience. 

I  i  sin  prison  life  in  earnest,  and  none  but  those  who 

have  ex]  I  it  can  approximate  an  idea  of  its  wretched- 

■onsist  in  loss  of  liber ty,  in  absence  from 
ion  to  other  .  in   insufficient  food,  in 

scant  clothii  in  want  of  occupation,  in  an 

exposed  life,  in  the  absence  of  all  conveniences  of  living,  in 
the  menial  or  physical  oppression  of  confinement — though, 


$Q  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

God  knows,  all  these  are  bad  enough,  and  contribute  in  the 
aggregate  greatly  to  the  enchancement  q£  the  misery  of  a 
prisoner.  I  think,  however,  that  the  great  overshadowing 
agony  of  imprisonment  is  isolation. 

the  dreary  void, 

The  leafless  desert  of  the  raind, 

The  waste  of  feelings  uneiaplojed." 

The  world,  friends,  fellow-citizens,  home,  are  things  as  remote 
as  though  in  another  sphere.  Death  brings  its  compensation 
aside  from  the  consolations  of  religion,  in  the  remembrance 
that  it  is  irreversible,  and  we  choke  down  and  eradicate,  if 
we  cannot  exalt  and  purify  those  emotions,  whereof  the  lost 
were  the  objects,  insensibly  changing  our  social  schedule  to 
meet  the  new1  order  of  things.  But  the  prisoner  preserves 
affections  and  interests  without  being  able  to  indulge  them, 
and  thus  with  straining  eyes  and  quickening  pulse,  he 
dismisses  continually  the  dove  for  the  expected  emblem,  but 
it  returns  forever  with  flagging  wing  and  drooping  head,  not 
having  found  whereon  to  rest  its  weary  foot.  Thus,  there 
comes  that  despair  which  is  the  aggregate  of  many,  or  the  su- 
premacy of  one  disappointment— and  from  despair  conies  always 
degradation.  Men  become  reckless,  because  hopeless — brutal- 
ized,  because  broken-spirited,  until  from  disregard  of  the  for- 
malities of  life,  they  become  indifferent  to  its  duties,  and  pass 
with  rapid  though  almost  insensible  steps  from  indecorum  to 
vice— until  a  man  will  pick  .your  pocket  in  a  prison,  who 
would  sooner  cut  his  throat  at  home. 

I  perceive,  that  I  shall  have  to  write  a  didactic  chapter, 
however,  and  the  reader  may  as  well  prepare  himself  for  his 
fate.  Meanwhile,  I  will  continue  my  record  of  the  facts  of  my 
prison  experience.  « 


CHAPTER  VH. 

Prison  Programme — Miss  Dix  on  the  Witness  Stand — Copper- 
as Water — Under  Water — Yankee  Thievery — Guards  and  Pa- 
trols. t 

The  routine  of  prison-life  at  Point  Lookout  was  as  follows  : 
Between  dawn  and  sunrise  a  "reveille  "  horn  summoned  us 
into  line  by  companies,  ten  of  which  constituted  each  divi- 
sion— of  which  I  have  before  spoken — and  here  the  roll  was 
called.  This  performance  is  hurried  over  with  as  much  haste 
as  is  ascribed  to  certain  marital  ceremonies  in  a  poem  that  it 
would  be  obviously  improper  to  make  more  particular  allu- 
sion to — and  those  whose  love  of  a  nap  predominates  over  fear 
of  the  Yankees  usually  turn!  -  another  snooze.     About 

8  o'clock  the  breakfasting  begins.  This  operation  consists  in 
the  forming  of  the  companies  again  into  line,  and  introducing 
them  under  lead  of  their  Sergeants,  into  the  mess-rooms,  where 
a  slice  of  bread  and  a  piece  of  pork  or  beef — lean  in  the  for- 
mer and  fat  in  the  latter  being  contraband  of  war — are  placed 
at  intervals  of  about  twenty  inches  apart.  The  meat  is  usu- 
ally about  four  or  five  ounces  in  weight.  These  we  Sei 
upon,  no  one  being  allowed  to  touch  a  piece,  however,  until 
the  whole  company  entered,  and  each  man  was  in  position 
opposite  his  ration  (universally  and  properly  pronounced  ray- 
Hon,  among  our  enemies,  as   it  is       !  as  generally  called, 

with  the  "  a  "  short  among  ourselves.)  This  over,  a  detail  of 
four  or  five  men  from  each  company — made  at  morning  roll- 
call — form  themselves  into  squads  for  the  cleansing  of  the 
camp — an  operation  which  the  V,  ,  where  attend  to 

with  more  diligence  than  ourselves.  The  men  then  busy 
themselves  with  the  numberless  occupations,  which  the  fertil- 
ity of  American  genius  suggests,  of  which  I  will  have  some- 
thing to  say  hereafter,  until  dinner  time,  when  they  are  again 
carried  to  the  mess-houses,  where  another  slice  of  bread,  and 


38  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

rather  over  a  half  pint  of  a  watery  slop,  by  courtesy  called 
"soup,"  greets  the  eyes  of  such  ostrich-stomached  animals,  as 
can  find  comfort  in  that  substitute  for  nourishment.  About 
sundown  the  roll  is  again  called,  on  a  signal  by  the  horn,  and 
an  hour  after,  "  taps  ".  sounds,  when  all  are  required  to  be  in. 
their  quarters — and  this,  in  endless  repetition  and  without  a 
variation,  is  the  routine  life  of  prii 

The  Sanitary  Commission,  a  benevolent  association  of  ex- 
empts in  aid  of  the  Hospital  Department  of  the  Yankee  army, 
published  in  July  last,  a  ''Narrative  of  Sufferings  of  United 
States  Officers  and  Soldiers,  Prisoners  of  War,"  in  which  a 
parallel  is  drawn,  between  the  treatment  of  prisoners  on  both 
sides,  greatly  to  the  disadvantage  of  course,  of  "  Dixie." 
Among  other  statements,  in  glorification  of  the  humanity  of 
the  Great  Republic,  is  one  on  p  ,  from  Miss  Dix,  the 

grand  female  dry  nurse  of  Yankee  Doodle,  who  by  the  by, 
gives  unpardgnable  offence  to  thepulchritu.de  of  Yankeedom, 
by  persistenl  ing  to  employ  any  but  ugly  icornen  as  nurses 

— the  vampire — which,  affirms  that  the  prisoners  at  Point 
Lookout,  "were  supplied  with  vegetable.-,  with  the  best  of 
wheat  bread,  and  fresh  and  salt  meat  three  times  daily  in 
abundant  measure." 

Common  gallantry  the  characterization  of  this  re- 

markable extract  in  harsher  terms  than  to  say  that  it  is  untrue 
in  c  '/'. 

It  is  quite  likely  that  some  Yankee  official  at  Point  Look- 
out, made  this  statemenl  to  the  benevolent  itinerant,  and  her 
only  fault  may  be  in  suppressing  the  fact  that  she  "mas  in- 
formed," &c,  &c.  But  it  is  altogether  inexcusable  in  the  Sani- 
tary Commission,  to  attempt  to  palm  such  a  falsehood  upon 
the  world,  knowing  its  falsity,  as  they  must.  For  my  part, 
I  never  saw  any  one  get  enough  of  any  thing  to  eat  at  Point 
Lookout,  except  the  soup,  and  a  tea  spoonful  of  that  was  too 
much  for  ordinary  digestion. 

These  digestive  discomforts  are  greatly  enhanced  by  the 
villainous  character  of  the  water,  which  is  so  impregnated 
with  some  mineral  as  to  offend  every  nose,  and  induce  diar- 


FIVE    MONTHS    AMONG    THE    YANKEES.  39 

rhcca  in  almost  every  alimentary  canal.  It  colors  every  tiling 
black  in  which  it  is  allowed  to  rest,  and  i  the 

top  of  a  vessel  if  it  is  left  standing  during  the  night,  which 
reflects  the  plasmatic  colors  as  distinctly  as  the  surface  of  a 
stagnant  pool.  Several  examin  itions  of  this  water  have  been 
made  by  chemical  analysis,  and  they  have  uniformly  resulted 
in  its  condemnation  by  s  i,  but   the  advantages  of 

the  position  to  the  Yankees,  so  counterbalance  any 

claim  of  humanity,  that  Point  Lookout  is  likely  to  remain  a 
prison  camp  antil  the  end  of  the  war,  especially  as  there  are 
wells  outside  of  "the  Pen,"  which  are  not  liable  to  these 
charges,  the   water   of  v  fectly   pure   and 

wholesome,  so  that  the  Y  nodamage  therefrom.     I 

was  not  surprised  therefore  on  my  return  to  the    Point,  after 
three  months  absence,  to  find  many  pr<  parations  looking  to 
permanent  occupancy  of  the  place.     It  has  already  served  the 
purposes  of  a  prison,  since  the  25th  of  July,  1863,  when  the 
Gettysburg  .  .  or  a   la  •  of  them,  wore    s< 

thither   from   the  "Old  I,"    Fort   McIIenry  and  Fort 

Delawar.  the  chant  that  it    will   play    the  part 

of  a  jail  unti  !  of -the  promised  redemption  of  our 

National  Currency.  . 

Another  local  inconveni  n  of  the 

post.     Situated  on  a  Ioav  tongue  "of  i  .'.v,^  out  into  the 

bay,  and.  as  I  have  1  .  but  a  few  inches  above 

ordinary  high  tide,  it  is  visited  in  winter  by  blasts  whose 
severity  has  can.  ■  '>  of  several  of  the  well-clad  sen- 

tinels, even,  altho'  during  the  severest  portion  of  the  winter 
of  1863-4,  they  were  relieved  every  thirty  minutes — two 
hours  being  the.  usual  time  duty.     And  when  a 

strong  easterly  gale  prevails  for  many  hours  in  winter,  a 
large  portion  of  the  sea,  which  finds 

convenient  :■■  of  ditches  <  instructed  for  the 

drainage  of  be    men, 

their  uPPty  of  wood  issued  to 

the  |  •  the  winter  was  not  enough  to  keep  up 

the  most  mp<  wo  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four, 


40  PRISONER  OF  WAR. 

and  the  only  possible  way  of  avoiding  freezing,  was  by  unre- 
mitting devotion  to  the  blankets.  This,  however,  became 
impossible  when  everything  was  afloat,  and  I  Was  not  sur- 
prised, therefore,  to  hear  some  pitiable  tales  of  suffering  dur- 
ing the  past  winter  from  this  cause. 

This  latter  evil  might  be  somewhat  mitigated  but  for  a 
barbarous  regulation  peculiar,  I  believe,  to  this  "pen,"  under 
which  the  Yanks  stole  from  us  any  .bed  clothing  we  might 
possess,  beyond  one  blanket  I  This  petty  larceny  was  effected 
through  an  instrumentality  they  call  inspections.  Once  in 
every  ten  days  an  inspection  is  ordered,  when  all  the  prison- 
ers turn  out  in  their  respective  divisions  and  companies  in 
marehing  order.  They  range  themselves  in  long  lines  between 
the  rows  of  tents, .with  their  blankets  and  haversacks — those 
being  the  only  articles  considered  orthodox  possessions  of  a 
rebel.  A  Yankee  inspects  each  man,  taking  away  his  extra 
blanket,  if  he  has  one,  and  appropriating  any  other  super- 
fluity he  may  chance  to  possess,  and  this  accomplished,  he 
visits  the  tents  and  seizes  everything  therein  that  under  the 
convenient  nomenclature  of  the  Federals,  is  catalogued  as 
"  contraband," — blankets,  boots,  hats,  anything.  The  only 
way  to  avoid  this,  is  by  a  judicious  use  of  greenbacks, — and 
a  trifle  will  suffice — it  being  true,  with  a  few  honorable  ex- 
ceptions, of  course,  that  Yankee  soldiers  are  very  much  like 
ships:  to  move  them,  you  must  "slush  the  ways." 

In  the  matter  of  clothing,  the  management  at  Point  Look- 
out is  simply  infamous.  You  can  receive  nothing  in  the  way 
of  clothing  without  giving  up  the  corresponding  article  which 
you  may  chance  to  possess;  and  so  rigid  is  this  regulation ? 
that  men  who  come  there  bare-footed  have  been  compelled  to 
be"-  or  buy  a  pair  of  worn  out  shoes  to  carry  to  the  oflice  in  lieu 
of  a  pair  sent  them  by  their  friefii  re  they  could  receive 

the  latter.  To  what  end  this  plundering  is  committed  I  could 
never  ascertain,  nor  was  I  ever  able  to  hear  any  better,  or 
indeed  any  other  reason  advanced  for  it  than  that  the  pos- 
session of  extra  clothing  would  enable  the  prisoners  to  bribe 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  41 

their  guards  !     Heaven  help  the  virtue  that  a  pair  of  second- 
hand Confederate  breeches  could  seduce! 

As  I  have  mentioned  the  guards,  and  as  this  is  a  mosaic 
chanter,  I  may  as  well  speak  here  as  elsewhere  of  the  method 
by  which  order  is  kept  in  camp.  During  the  day  the  plat- 
form around  the  pen  is  tly"  paced  by  sentinels  chiefly 
of  the  Invalid  (or,  as  it  is  now  called,  the  Veteran  Reserve) 
Corps,  whose  duty  it  is  to  see  that  the  prisoners  are  orderly, 
and  particularly,  that  no  one  crosses  "the  dead  line."  This 
is  a  shallow  ditch  traced  around  within  the  enclosure,  about 
from  I'.  The  penally  for  stepping  over 
this  is  death,  and  altl  he  sentinels  are  probably  instruct- 
ed to  warn  .  :  be  violi  i  s  rule,  the  order 
does  hot  seem  to  be  imperative,  and  the  negroes,  when  on 
duty,  rarely  troubled  themselves  with  this  superfluous  form- 
ality.  These  were  on  duty  curing  my  stay  at  the  Point, 
every  third  day,  and  their  insolence  and  brutality  were  in- 
tolerable. 

Besides  this  detail  of  day  guard,  which  of  course  is  pre- 
s.i  ved  during  the  night,  a  patrol  makes  the  rounds  constantly 
from  "  taps,"  the  last  horn  at  night,  to  "reveille."  These  are 
usually  armed   with   pistols   for  convenience,  and  as 

they  are  shielded  from  scrutiny  by  the  darkness,  the  indmni- 
and  cru<  lict  on  prisoners,  who  for 

any  cause  may  be  out  of  their  tents  between  those  hours 
especially  when  the  patrol  are  black,  are  outrageous.  Many 
of  t1  of  a  character,  which  could  not  by  any  periphrases 

be  decently  expressed, — they  are,  however,  precisely  the  acts 
which  a  set  of  vulgar  brutes,  suddenly  invested  with  irres- 
ponsible authority,  might  be  expected  to  take  delight  in,  and 
as  it  is  of  course  impossible  to  recognize  them,  redress  is  un- 
attainable,  even  if  one  could  brook  th  and  insult  which 

would    inevitably   follow    complaint.     Indeed,    most   of   the 
Yankees  do  not   disguise  their  delight  ut  the  insolence  of 
these  Congoes. 
G 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

Houses  Plebeian  and  Patrician — Love's  Labor  Lost — llic 
Manufactures  of  Camp — Samples  of  Curious  Workmanship — 
Washerwomen  and  Gamblers — Exceptional  Prisoners. 

I  have  said  that  the  only  shelter  supplied  by  the  Yankee 
government  to  the  prisoners  at  Point  Lookout  is  canvass. 
Tents  are  issued  to  the  prisoners  at  the  rate  of  one  "  A  tent "  — 
covering  about  six  feet  square — to  each  squad  of  five,  or  one 
Sibley  tent — covering  a  circle  whose  diameter  is  about  fifteen 
feet — to  every  eighteen  men.  The  camp  uniformity  is  how- 
ever agreeably  diversified  by  mansions  of  aristocratic  propor- 
tions and  finish,  which  from  their  material  are  styled  "  crack- 
er-box houses."  Top-boots  and  a  cracker-box  house  fill  the 
measure  of  any  genuine  Point  Lookouter's  ambition.  To  want 
these  is  to  be  the  subject  of  envy — to  possess  them  is  to  be  its* 
object,  (I  speak  Kant — as  maDy  a  better  man  before  me.)  It 
is  only  as  a  very  special  favor  that  a  rebel  is  allowed  to  wear 
boots  there  at  all,  but  the  other  blessing  being  attainable  by 
all  by  means  of  a  little  cash,  and  much  diligence,  is  a  lawful 
object  of  universal  ambition.     They  are  made  on  this  wise  : 

A  large  proportion  of  the  bread  used  at  all  prisons  consists 
of  square  crackers  made  of  flour,  water  and  salt  alone,  and 
thoroughly  baked,  which  are  put  up  in  fifty  pound  boxes,  and 
everywhere  denominated  "hard  tack."  The  boxes  in  which 
these  crackers  are  packed,  are  made  of  white  pine  or  some 
other  light  and  easily  worked  wood,  and  are,  I  suppose,  about 
thirty-two  inches  long,  by  twenty  broad  and  twelve  deep. 
They  are  the  perquisites  of  the  prison  Commissary,  who  sells 
them  at  from  ten  to  fifteen  cents  apiece  according  to  the  de- 
mand, These  are  knocked  to  pieces  carefully,  the  nails  all 
saved,  and  the  boards  put  away,  until  longer  pieces  of  wood 
in  sufficent  numbers  to  make  a  frame  are  procured  from  out- 


F;VE   MONTHS   AMONG  TIIE  YANKEES.  43 

side.  This  accomplished,  and  the  boards  nailed  on  carefully, 
the  "  A  tent  "  is  slit  up  the  back,  and  stretched  across  the 
ridge  pole  of  th<  micile  to  form  the  roof.     If  newspa- 

pers, especially  illustrated  ones,  can  be  procured,  the  walls  are 
papered  inside,  increasing  the  comfort  as  avcII  as  bettering  the 
appearance  of  the  room — a  fire  place  is  made  in  the  end,  of 
sun-dried  bricks  of  home  manufacture,  which  having  *been 
raised  four  or  five  feet,  is  surmounted  by  a  Hour  barrel;  the 
floor  is  spread  \.  from  the  beach,  a  table  and  a  couple 

of  chairs  are  impro\  a  name   painted 

(with  a  composition  of  soot  and  vinegar)  over  the  door;  and 
the  family  moves  in — men  of  mark  and  consequence  forever 
henceforth  in  th  of  Point  Lookout! 

Most  of  these  buildings  have  been  put  up  by  Marylanders, 
whose  proximity  to  their  homes  enables  them  to  command  a 
larger  exchequer  than  the  risoners. 

Many  of  the  names  by  which  these  mansions  arc  designa- 
ted are  purely  fanciful,  as  "Here's  your  Mule,"  "  The  Alham- 
bra,"  &c,  but  sometimes  they  are  quite  significant.  I  noticed 
a  very  neat  one  at  th  of  the  division  in  which  I  slept, 

labelled  "  Home  Again,"  and  on  enquiry  learned  that  the  ap- 
propriateness of  the  title  depended  on  the  following  incident. 
It  was  erected  on  the  ground  of  a  former  structure  of  the  same 
kind,  tenanted  by  the  same  parties,  which  came  to  grief  as 
follows  :  Its  occupants,  an  ingenious  partv  with  considerable 
mechanical  skill,  had  contrived  to  accumulate  cracker-box 
lumber  in  large  quantities  without  exciting  suspicion,  and  by 
watching  their  opportunities,  had  fashioned  their  material  into 
two  canoes,  each  capable  of  containing  two  or  three  men. 
These  boats  could  be  carried  under  the  arm,  the  various  parts 
disjointed,  without  e  suspicion,  and  could  be  readily 

fitted  together,  even  in  the  dark,  by  those  who  were  familiar 
with  their  construction.  Everything  promised  success,  and 
they  were  awaiting  a  night  of  favoring  darkness,  having. made 
the  necessary  arrangements  for  getting  outside  of  the  enclo- 
sure, (which  it  woul  I  not  be  prudent  perhaps  to  disclose,  as 
that  gate  is  still  open.)  when  the  Yanks  were  somehow  made  ac- 


44  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

quainted  witli  the  scheme.  They  sent  a  guard  to  the  house, 
found  the  canoes,  made  a  bon-fireof  them,  and  then  razed  the 
castle  to  the  ground,  leaving  not  a  bit  of,..it  standing,  "  from 
turret  to  foundation  stone."  For  some  time  the  baffled  tenants 
wandered  around,  pensioners  upon  the  charity  of  their  com- 
rades ;  but  at  last  they  ventured  on  rebuilding  their  palace, 
and  having  accomplished  this  unmolested,  they  gave  modest 
vent  to  their  satisfaction  as  well  as  a  visiting-card  to  their 
friends,  by  writing  over  their  door,  "Home  Again."' 

As  I  have  spoken  of  the  architectural  ingenuity  of  the 
"rebs,"  I  may  as  well  do  scant  justice,  here  as  elsewhere,  to 
the  surprising  ingenuity  and  skill  displayed  by  them  in  the 
various  devices,  with  which  they  contrive  to  beguile  the  tedi- 
um (and  buy  the  tobacco)  of  prison  life. 

The  larger  portion  of  the  manufactures  of  the  prisoners  con- 
sists of  rings,  chains,  breast-puns,  shirt  buttons,  lockets,  &c, 
of  gutta  percha.  These  are  beautifully  carved  in  an  infinite 
diversity  of  style  and  design,  and  inlaid  with  gold,  silver  and 
pearl,  in  an  endless  variety  of  "ornamental  device.  The  rings 
are  chiellv  made  of  coat  buttons;  the  chains  exclusively  I 
believe  from  a  certain  long  hollow  tube  of  gutta  percha]  used 
as  a  needle  in  some  d  itting  or  crochet,  by  saw- 

in  "■  the  cylinder  into  rings,  slitting  one  side  of  each  and  thus 
linking  them  together ;  and  the  other  ornaments  are  made 
principally  of  what  is  known  as  block  gutta  percha,  the  mas- 
ses of  which  being  of  greater  thickness,  afford  the  means  of 
heavier  work.  A  large  needle,  to  drill  the  holes  for  the  pins, 
which  confine  the  inlaid  material,  a  hand  lathe  which  can  be 
made  in  a  half  hour,  and  a  knife,  one  blade  of  which  has  been 
filed  into  a  saw,  arc  the  only  instruments  required  for  this 
manufacture,  though  many  who  have  been  long  at  the  busi- 
ness, have  supplied  themselves  with  graver's  tool  of  every 
variety. 

A  more  ambitious  class  of  workmen  confine  themselves  to 
carving  in  bone,  and  I  remember  a  "Greek  Slave,"  a  "Paul 
in  chains,"  and  a  "  crucifix,"  by  one  of  these  which  would  not 
shame  an  experienced  artist,  and  yet  the  maker  had  never 


five  months  among  tee  Yankees.  45 

carved  a  pipe,  even,  until  lie  was  a  prisoner.  I  feel  no  hesita- 
tion in  mentioning  the  name  of  the  ingenious  gentleman  who 
wrought  thus  beautifully,  nor  any  delicacy  in  giving  this  pub- 
lic expression  to  the  hope  that  Mr.  W.  W.  Marstellar,*  will 
do  himself  and  his  native  state,  Virginia*  the  justice  to  cher- 
ish and  mature  the  talent  he  so  obviously  possesses  in  unusual 
degree. 

While  these  are  the  regular  occupations  of  camp,  no  division 
is  without  one  or  two  shoe-makers,  and  as  many  tailors,  and 
barbers,  who  contrive  -somehow  to  obtain  both  the  tools  and 
materials  ol  their  trades,  while  here  and  there  throughout  the 
camp,  you  will  find  ginger-bread  and  molasses  candy  of  do- 
mestic manufacture  for  sale,  and,  strangely  enough,  one  or 
two  regular  eating-houses,  where  a  very  respectable  dinner 
can  be  obtained  for  filly  cents  !  The  solvent  power  of  money 
triumphs  over  every  obstacle.  Well  and  wisely  wrote  that 
rollicking  son  of  Venusium  : 


rem  Jacias :  rem 
Sipossis  recte,  si  von,  oiiocunquo  modo  rem." 

Before  my  arrival  at  Point  Lookout,  two  of  its  most  cele- 
brated pieces  of  workmanship  had  been  sold  outside.  One  of 
these  was  a  locomotive,  with  a  camp  kettle  for  a  boiler,  and 
the  other  a  watch,  which  filled  a  common  canteen!  both  of 
which  worked  admirably,  as  I  learned  from  many  who  inspect- 
ed them.  The  handsomest  and,  considering  all  the  difficulties, 
the  most  surpri*  mpie   of  mere  mechanical   ingenuity 

which  I  saw,  was  a  violin  made  of  a  cracker-box,  wherein  all 
the  curves  and  undulations  of  that  praHer-naturally  twisted 
instrument  were  reproduced  with  the  utmost  fidelity,  This 
curiosity  stood  the  crucial  test  of  practice,  for  T  had  the  plea- 
sure of  hearing  as  honest  a  jig,  extracted  from  its  sonorous 

*Mr.  Marstellar  presented  one  of  the  samples  of  his  skill  "Paul  " 
through  the  hands  of  his  former  Colonel  and  Brigadier,  our  gillant 
Governor,  who  never  forgetshu  soldiers,  to  General  Lee,  shortly  after 
his  return  from  prison  and  received  a  handsome  autograph  aknowlcdge- 
ment  from  the  General. 


46  .  rmsoN'ER  of  war. 

body  as  ever  tried  the  endurance  or  evidenced  the  skill  of 
dame  or  demoiselle  in  all  the  tide  of  time. 

Another  source  of  extensive  profits  in  prison  is  the  pursuit 
of  the  washerwomen — if  that  phrase  may  be  used  without 
compromising  the  conscript  liability  of  the  subjects.  The  la- 
bors of  these  useful  ouvriers  are  conducted  on  the  beach  at 
low  tide.  The  beating  of  the  waves  against  the  bank,  which 
is  formed  just  here  of  a  tenacious  clay,  leaves  a  little  bluff 
some  two  or  three  feet  high,  along  the  bay  face  of  the  prison, 
which,  as  I  have  before  mentioned,  is  free  to  the  prisoners 
during  the  day.  Here  the  washers  most  do  congregate.  Their 
first  d«ty  is  to  make  a  stove.  This  is  effected  by  digging  a 
round  hole  in  this  clay  bluff)  about  eight  inches  in  diameter, 
and  as  many  deep,  the  outer  rim  of  which  is  some  four  or  five 
inches  from  the  edge  of  the  bluff.  A  second  hole  is  then  tun- 
nelled in  the  face  of  the  bluff,  at  such  a  distance  below  the 
surface  as  will  allow  it  to  strike  the  bottom  of  the  first  hole, 
so  that  the  two  apertures  have  the  general  form  of  the  elbow 
of  a  stove  pipe — and  the  furnace  is  complete.  Afire  is  made 
in  the  larger  cavity  over  the  mouth  of  which  the  boiler  is 
placed,  being  raised  from  the  ground  by  a  few  pebbles  that 
the  draught  may  be  perfect.  The  washerwoman  rolls  up  his 
pants  and  wades  out  a  few  yards  to  clear  water,  fills  his  buck- 
et with  the  salt  tide,  and  is  soon  under  weigh. 

The  washer  women  do  not,  however,  monopolize  this  belt 
of  ground,  unfortunately.  Its  most  numerous  occupants  are 
gamblers,  who,  under  hastily  constructed  booths  which  they 
erect  every  morning  and  sleep  on  every  night,  carry  on  every 
game  of  cards  at  which  money  is  staked,  from  aristocratic 
"  faro  "  to  cut-throat  monte.  Here  the  dice  rattle  and  the 
cards  are  shuffled  from  morning  till  night,  everything  repre- 
senting value,  from  a  "hardtack"  up,  being  freely  offered 
and  accepted  as  legitimate  currency.  In  truth,  the  "  hard 
tack  "  may  be  considered  the  unit  of  value  in  prison.  One 
of  them  will  purchase  a  single  chew  of  tobacco  anywhere  in 
camp,  eight  will  buy  a  U.  S.  postage  stamp  ;  ten  a  loaf  of 
bread,  &c.     Indeed,  the  air  resounds  from  rosy  morn  to  dewy 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  47 

eve  with  sucli  sounds  as  "Here's  yer  tobaccer  for  yer  hard 
tack,"  "  Here's  envelopes  for  yer  hard  tack,"  and  the  like 
There  is  quite  an  amount  of  this  commodity  always  in  circu- 
lation from  the  fact  that  many  of  the  prisoners  are  not  de- 
pendant on  the  government  rations ;  so  they  draw  their 
supplies  and  either  give  them  or  sell  them  to  less  fortunate 
neighbors,  who  in  turn  dispose  of  them  to  others  more  needy 
than  themselves,  so  that  the  commerce  of  the  "  pen  "  consists 
in  various  exchanges,  whose  design  and  effect  is  to  get  hard 
tack  from  full  mouths  to  empty  ones. 

Whence  comes  the  money  for  all  this  gambling  you  natur- 
ally ask,  and  I  confess  I  was  for  a  long  time  puzzled  by  the 
phenomenon.  The  regulations  of  this  prison  not  only  pre- 
scribe, that  all  money  shall  be  taken  from  prisoners  on  their 
entry,  but  that  under  no  circumstances  shall  money  be  de- 
livered to  them.  When  friends,  therefore,  transmit  them 
supplies  of  this  sort,  they  are  taken  possession  of  by  the  com- 
mandant of  the  camp,  who  noli  lies  the  prisoner,  and  the  latter 
is  then  permitted,  in  one  form  or  another,  to  draw  on  the 
deposite  thus  made.  At  Point  Lookout,  under  the  regime  at 
the  time  of  our  capture,  the  money  was  issued  in  sutler's 
checks  or  tickets,  which  the  sutler  was  forbidden  to  receive 
again  from  any  one  not  a  prisoner.  Subsequently,  the  plan 
was  devised  of  handing  to  each  prisoner  who  had  money  to 
his  credit,  a  pass-book,  on  the  first  page  of  which  he  found 
himself- credited  with' the  money  sent  him,  and  debited  with 
the  cost  t>f  the  book,  and  by  taking  this  account  book  to  the 
sutler,  purchases  could  be  effected  to  the  amount  of  the  bal- 
ance due.  But,  under  whatever  form,  money  obtained,  by  some 
muni;:,  admission.  Rebel  ingenuity  managed  it,  and  I  am 
overwhelmed  with  regret,  oh,  most  in  of  readers,  that 

"the  e\  of  the  public  service"  do  not  permit  me  to 

say  hoio.     I  I  d,  but  "odds  bodikins!" 

how  can  I  help  that?     Curiosity  has  brought  many  a  man 
and  woman  to  e  .anion  grandmother's 

unfortunate  and,  doubtless,  will  continue  to  be  the 

vestibule  to  misery  till  'the  crack  of  doom.     Ruminate  there- 


48      '  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

on,  and  be  comforted,  for  tell  you,  I  am  resolved  beyond 
hope  of  repentance,  I  will  not. 

As  this  is  a  chapter  devoted  somewhat  to  the  rarities  of 
prisondom,  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  that  among  the  con- 
victs is  a  woman  !  She  was  captured  in  the  Valley  of  Vir- 
ginia, I  was  informed,  while  acting  as  a  member  of  an  artil- 
lery company,  and  her  sex  discovered,  probably,  on  the  usual 
search  for  valuables.  Common  civility  suggested  a  conver- 
sation with  her,  and  one  day  as  I  was  passing  the  little  tent, 
which  was  assigned  to  her  exclusivel}',  I  approached  her  for 
the  purpose  of  making  some  inquiries,  as  well  as  letting  her 
know  that  we  were  disposed  to  serve  her  in  any  way  possi- 
ble to  prisoners.  She  seemed,  however,  indisposed  to  con- 
verse and  I  was  compelled  to  give  up  the  chase.  Why  the 
Yanks  detain  her,  I  can't  imagine,  as  I  believe  in  the  rare 
instances  in  which  these  Amazonian  propensities  have  brought 
the  sex  to  trouble,  heretofore,  on  either  side,  their  exchange 
has  been  promptly  made. 

Another  "rara  avis" — the  remainder  of  the  line  is  even 
more  pointedly  appropriate — is  a  genuine  "Old  Virginny" 
negro,  named  "  Dick,"  whilom  a  servant  at  the  Bollingbrook 
Hotel,  in  Petersburg,  who  was  taken  while  in  the  service  as 
cook  to  some  mess,  during  the  Gettysburg  campaign.  Dick 
has  been  importuned,  time  and  again,  to  renounce  the  Con- 
federate cause,  come  out  of  prison  and  accept  work  and  good 
wag§3  outside,  but  he  resists  with  Koman  fortitude — protests 
that  he  is  a  "Jeff.  Davis"  man,  that  he  is  going  back  to  his 
home,  and  wants  nothing  to  do  with  the  Yankees,  and  expres- 
ses the  most  appropriate  and  sovereign  contempt  for  "Old 
Abe."  It  is  positively  exhilarating  to  see  such  loyal  devo- 
tion in  a  slave,  tempted  and  persecuted  by  the  enemy  as  they 
are,  and  it  involves  many  sacrifices,  besides  the  usual  ones  of 
prison,  to  stand  his  ground  so  manfully.  Chief  among  these, 
probably,  is  the  jeers  of  his  fellow-negroes  when  on  duty# 
But  Dick  rises  sublimely  superior  to  all  this,  and  quietly  pur- 
sues his  labors  with  no  more  apparent  annoyances  or  regrets, 
than  are  supposed  to  be  inseparable  from  the  pursuits  of  any 


FIVE   MONTHS   ASIOXG-  THE   YANKEES.  49 

other  overworked  washerwoman — that  being  his  profession. 

The  advent  of  the  Petersburg  delegation  was  a  source  of 
mingled  mortification  and  delight  to  him.  He  obviously  re- 
gretted to  see  us  in  bonds,  but  he  was  glad  to  hear  news  of 
many  who  had  been  dead  to  him  for  a  year,  and  his  gratifica- 
tion took  the  practical  turn  of  placing  his  purse  and  labor  at 
our  disposal. 

Day  now  followed  day  in  tedious  progression,  little  occur- 
ring to  break  the  monotony  of  a  life  which  has  all  the  stupid- 
ity of  a  tread-mill  without  its  exercise.  The  few  incidents 
that  marked  it,  I  cannot,  perhaps,  more  conveniently  dispose 
of  than  by  extracting  from  1:13'  diary,  with  a  little  amplifica- 
tion for  greater  clearness. 


CIIArTEK  IX. 


A    Negro    Raid — Major     Weymouth — General    Augur    In 
speets   Us — Fall  of  Petersburg — Camp   Inspection — Petersburg 
in  Mourning — Letter ,  rome — Culottes  and   Seen*- Culottes — 

Speculations  .  I  limen tary. 

Thursday,  June  16th.  A  prisoner  a  week  to-day — it  seems  a 
year.  Last  night  the  negro  regiment  which  constitutes  part  of 
our  guard,  and  which  has  been  raiding  over  in  AVestmorerand 
and  the  adjacent  counties,  returned  with  great  beating  of 
drums  and  blowing  of  fifes.  The  captives  of  these  br; 
soldiers  of  the  Eepublic,  consisted  of  a  hundred  head  of 
cattle,  principally  poor  women's  cows,  several  plows,  buggies^ 
primeval  sulkies,  harrows,  beds,  chairs,  &c,  and  from  twenty 
to  thirty  decrepit  citizens  !  This  is  the  service  in  winch  t] 
demons  are  regularly  employed.  Every  month,  and  some- 
times more  frequently  than  once  in  thirty  days,  they  are  sent 
across  the  river  on  a  plundering  tour.  The  Yankees  arc  too 
7 


50  rmsoNEii  OF  war. 

much  ashamed  of  this,  to  fill  their  papers  with  the  doings  of 
these  valiant  "swash  bucklers/'  but  they  are  glad  of  the 
means  of  keeping  alive  by  this  promise  of  stated  plunderings, 
the  martial  ardor  and  fidelity  of  their  black  brethren,  and  of 
course,  are  not  un walling  to  share  the  spoils.  These  raids, 
which  are  usually  made  in  a  country  entirely  devoid  of  Con- 
federate soldiers,  are,  of  course,  without  any  earthly  justifica- 
tion or  purpose,  except  to  gratify  the  malignity  and  feed  the 
beastliness  of  their  new  allies,  whose  delight  in  these  safe 
robberies  is,  as  may  be  expected,  boundless.  The  old  men 
are  usually  kept  a  short  time  in  an  unenclosed  camp  outside, 
under  guard  of  the  negroes,  and  then  returned  to  their  homes, 
the  Yankees  even  not  having  the  audacity  to  detain  them — 
perhaps  not  the  humanity  to  feed  them. 

Saw  to-day,  for  the  first  time,  the  Chief  Provost  Marshal, 
Major  H.  G.  0.  Weymouth.  He  is  a  handsome  official  with 
ruddy  face,  a  rather  frank  countenance,  and  a  cork-leg.  He 
conducts  this  establishment  on  the  "  laissez  fqire  "  principle — 
in  short  he  lets  it  alone  severely.  Whatever  the  abuses  or 
complaints,  or  reforms,  the  only  way  to  reach  him  is  by  com- 
munications through  official  channels,  said  channels  being 
usually  the  authors  of  the  abuses  !  It  may  be  easily  computed 
how  many  documents  of  this  description  would  be  likely  to 
reach  him. 

Two  or  three  times  a  week  he  rides  into  camp  with  a  sturdy 
knave  behind  him,  at  a  respectful  distance — makes  the  run 
of  one  or  two  streets  and  is  gone,  and  I  presume  sits  down 
ovef  a  glass  of  brandy  and  water,  and  indites  a  mostsati 
tory  report  of  the  condition  of  the  "  rebs,"  for  the  perusal  of 
his  superior  officer,  or  plies  some  credulous  spinster  with 
specious  fictions  about  the  comfort,  abundance  and  general 
desirableness  of  Yankee  prisons.  Major  bears  a  bad  reputa- 
tion here,  in  the  matter  of  money — all  of  which  I  presume 
arises  from  the  unreasonableness  of  the  "  rebs,"  who  are  not 
aware  that  they  have  no  rights,  which  Yankees  are  bound  to 
respect. 

Friday,  June  17th. — A   salute  of  thirteen   guns  heralded 


FIVE    MONTH*    (UHONG   THE    YANKEES.  51 

this  morning,  the  arrival  of  General  Augur,  who  commands 
the  department  of  Washington.  About  12  m.,  the  general 
with  a  few  other  officials,  made  the  tour  of  camp,  performing 
in  the  prevailing  perfunctory  manner  the  official  duty  of  in- 
spection. 

Wandered  about  among  my  fellow-prisoners  to-day,  and 
found  nearly  all  of  the  new  comers  suffering  from  the  poison- 
ous water. 

Sunday,  June  10th. — The  New  York  papers  received  to- 
day are  blatant  with  accounts,  most  detailed  and  circumstan- 
tial of  the  capture  of  Peter-burg.  The  back  door  of  Rich- 
mond is  now  secured  say  the  editors,  and  bets  are  freely 
offered  in  Grant's  army,  according  to  the  correspondents,  that 
the  "Fourth  of  July  "  will  be  celebrated  under  the  shadow  of 
Washington's  statue,  on  Capitol  Square  in  Eichraond !  All 
this  I  believe  with  unhesitating  faith  to  be  a  lie  of  the  first 
water,  explicable  alone  in  the  light  of  the  circumstance,  that 
the  regular  mail  for  Europe  left  yesterday.  Such  of  General 
Grant's  officers  as  celebrate  the  "  Fourth  "  in  Richmond,  will 
perform  that  patriotic  service  in  the  Libby,  and  to-morrow's 
papers,  (the  steamer  being  gone,)  will  contradict  the  falsehood 
of  to-day.  And  yet — and  here's  the  psychological  paradox 
in  the  matter — the  credulous  Yanks,  though  thus  deceived  On 
a  moderate  calculation,  three  hundred  and  sixty  live  times  in 
every  year  of  grace  since  the  war  began,  are  as  ready  now  to 
be  deluded  as  in  the  earliest  hour  of  the  earliest  day,  and  the 
enterpria  Liuses    who  control,  or  furnish  news  for,  the 

press  of  the  North,  play  the  game  of  wholesale  lying,  with  the 
same  profound  audacity  and  superb  success  this  blessed  day 
as. when  they  first  gave  American  circulation  to  the  European 
simile  "  lying  like  a  bulletin."     Me  in  Gott  vot  a  beebles  ! 

To-day,  We  were  blessed  with  our  first  practical  experience 
of  the  beauties  of  a  Yan  pection.     The  massacre  of  the 

innocent  [blankets)  was  wholesale  and  very  provoking.  I 
performed  an  acceptable  servic  i  for  a  fellow -prisoner,  by  ap- 
pearing in  line  with  his  extra  blanket  in  my  hand,  not  having 


52  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

one  of  my  own.  Oar  division  being  a  new  one — for  though 
sleeping  in  the  fourth,  I  answered  roll  in  the  twelfth — the 
prisoners  had  bat  little  superfluous  cloth  of  any  sort,  and  the 
Yank  who  did  the  stealing  from  us,  was  obviously  mortified 
at  the  scant  game  he  bagged. 

While  waiting  dutifully,  hour  by  hour,  for  our  inspector  to 
approach  and  perform  his  task,  the  gates  of  the  prison  opened 
and  a  batch  of  "  rebs,"  numbering  a  couple  of  hundred  en- 
tered. Among  them  were  several  of  our  fellow-citizens  of 
Petersburg,  captured  in  the  attack  of  the  preceding  Thursday 
I  believe,  by  Baldy  Smith  and  Hancock,  which  gave  rise  to 
the  flaming  particulars  of  the  capture  of  the  gallant  Cockade, 
so  ostentatiously  displayed  in  the  journals  of  Saturday.  They 
assure  us  that  our  little  city  is  still  safe,  bat  the  accounts  tiny 
bring  of  the  distress  of  the  inhabitants,  on  the  day  after  our 
capture  are  heart-rending.  I  can  well  imagine  it.  Only  a 
drop,  it  was,  truly,  in  that  fierce  tide,  each  refluent  wave  of 
which  comes  to  the  shore  of  the  South,  crested  with  the  shat- 
tered wrecks  of  the  best  and  dearest,  and  noblest  of  her  sons, 
yet  to  those  mourning  homes  in  Petersburg,  shuddering  with 
the  agony  of  an  unexpected  and  bloody  woe,  that  drop  was  a 
consuming  flood.  Her  young  men  had  gone  into  the  war, 
with  a  noble  prodigality  of  their  lives,  and  health,  and  com- 
fort, that  proved  them  worthy  of  the  ancient  fame  of  their 
little  city,  and  of  the  priceless  heritage  they  coveted,  and 
when  they  fell  they  were  mourned  indeed,  but  it  was  a  sacri- 
fice anticipated  and  in  some  sort  prepared  for.  But  on  that 
day,  the  fathers  and  grand-fathers  full— the  bullet  cheated  the 
grave.  The  blood-stained  locks  were  grey— the  pallid  cheeks 
were  wrinkled.  It  was  not  mothers  that  wailed  the  lost,  but 
daughters  and  daughter's  daughters!  Yet,  how  well  and 
worthily  these  heroes  shed  their  blood,  let  the  record  of  the 
villainies  now  staining,  as  I  write,  the  track  of  Sherman,  at- 
test ! 

Tuesday,  June  21st. — As  I  expected,  the  capture  of  Peters- 
burg was  a  mere  Yankee  lie,  which  having  accomplished  its 
purpose,  be  the  same  financial  or  political,  is  now  shelved  as 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  53 

quietly  as  the  same  versatile  people  sacrifice  a  principle,  or 
decapitate  a  general  when  either  has  served  their  turn. 

The  further  issue  of  cracker-boxes  to  the  prisoners  was  pro- 
hibited to-day,  so  that  an  elegant  arrangement  by  which  I  pro- 
posed in  company  with  five  or  six  others,  to  become  a  P.  L. 
aristocrat  is  postponed,  if  not  prevented  utterly.  As  our 
rulers  do  not  vouchsafe  any  excuse  for  this  act,  we  are  of 
course  left  to  conjecture  as  to  the  cause,  and  guesses  at  the  mo- 
tives of  the  conduct  of  these  worthies  are  not  likely  to  prove 
signally  profitable. 

lo  triumplie  !  I  received  to-day  a  letter  !  To  ordinary  mor- 
tal eyes  this  may  seem,  nothing  more  than  a  common  quad- 
rangle of  M.  S.,  distinguished  by  the  imprimatur  of  a  certain 
official  outside  the  "  pen,"  who  stamps  our  correspondence 
"Prisoner's  Letter,  Examined,"  but  to  me,  hungering  and 
thirsting  after  news  of  home,  this  was  as  grateful  as  the  first 
golden  distillation  of  the  grape  to  our  pluvious  progenitor  in 
the  earliest  autumn  after  the  Delugo.  (N.  B.  This  simile  is 
copyrighted.)  The  regulations  of  all  the  prisons  prohibit 
prisoners,  from  sending  or  receiviog  a  longer  letter  than  one 
page.  At  Point  Lookout  the  ellipsis  which  may  be  supposed 
to  follow  the  word  "page,"  in  the  "general  order,"  is  filled 
with  the  words  "  of  note  paper."  So  that  one  had  to  acquire 
a  telegraphic  habit  of  writing  or  be  content  to  say  little. 
Some  geniuses  whose  fancies  refused  this  mathematical  curb, 
were  in  the  habit  of  writing  their  letters  at  the  usual  length, 
and  cutting  them  off  by  the  page  and  sending  them  "by  de- 
tail," very  much  as  ships  are  built  "  Down  East  "  by  the  mile, 
and  then  cut  off  to  suit  purchasers: — while  others  cultivated 
a  microscopic  penmanship,  which  must  be  eminently  useful  to 
them  on  their  return  to  Dixie,  unless  paper  falls  in  the  market 
meanwhile. 

Tuesday,  June  21st.  On  the  prison  bulletin  board — an 
institution  by  which  general  information  is  conveyed  to  pri- 
soners— a  list  was  pasted  this  morning,  containing  the  names 
of  parties  for  whom  there  were  boxes  or  packages  to  deliver, 
and  to  my  considerable  joy,  my  name  appeared  iu  the  list. 


54  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

These  presents  to,  or  purchases  by  prisoners,  are  delivered  at 
a  door  in  the  South  side  of  the  enclosure,  which  opens  through 
the  fence  and  into  an  office  or  store  room,  where  the  packages 
are  received,  opened,  examined,  and  all  that  escapes  the  reg- 
ulations (and  the  regulators)  turned  over  to  the  owners.  As 
before  remarked,  this  performance  is  conducted  on  the  most 
ascetic  principles  as  respects  clothing,  no  one  being  allowed 
to  take  any  articles  of  outside  wear,  from  hat  to  shoes,  (boots 
are  mala  prohibit®,)  unless  he  depositos  the  corresponding 
article  of  his  existing  stock.  It  becomes  necessary,  therefore, 
if  one  has  any  article  of  apparel,  that  he  is  not  exactly  pre- 
pared to  turn  over  to  his  merciful  masters,  to  find  some 
method  of  evading  the  laws.  This  was  not  very  difficult. 
All  that  was  necessary,  was  to  buy  or  beg  or  "  Hank  "  a  suit 
of  clothes,  to  surrender  which  would  involve  no  other  sacri- 
fice than  that  purely  emotional  one  which  founds  our  attach- 
ment to  certain  tilings,  on  account  of  an  absurd  veneration 
for  antiquity.  Accordingly,  I  beat  up  quarters  for  a  half  an 
hour,  till  I  accumulated  a  suit  that  would  have  entitled  me  to 
an  exalted  position  among  the  raggedest  vagrants  in  Naples 
or  Constantinople.  My  shoos  had  to  be  coaxed  to  stay  on, 
by  an  arrangement  after  the  fashion  of  a  surcingle,  which 
strapped  them  to  my  feet.  My  hat  only  deserved  the  name 
from  the  circumstance  that  m  some  mythical  era  of  the  past, 
it  was  attached  to  certain  others,  and  relatively  very  extensive 
portions  of  organized  matter,  now,  alas,  long  resolved  into 
their  original  elements, — the  combination  of  which  consti- 
tuted the  article  in  question,  though  I  am  free  to  say,  it  would 
have  required  the  anatomical  intuition  of  a  Cuvier,  to  have 
deduced  the  castor  from  the  specimen.  It  being  a  warm  sum- 
mer day,  I  conceived  it  would  excite  no  suspicion  to  appear 
without  a  coat,  so  my  only  other  article  of  external  costume, 
was  one,  which  with  great  and  many  misgivings,  I  venture 
to  enter  on  the  catalogue  of  pantaloons.  Verily,  verily,  never 
since  the  martial  ancestors  of  the  gay  Parisians  invented 
these  indispensable  institutions  of  dress,  (and  I  have  Gibbon's 
authority  for  the  assertion,  that  they  deserve  that  credit,)  did 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  55 

such  a  travesty  on  costume/disgust  the  eye  of  taste.  Inno- 
cent of  buttons,  both  legs  out  at  the  knees,  stained  by  time 
and  less  tender  agencies  out  of  all  approach  to  its  original 
color,  with  an  enormous  quadrilateral,  carved  out  of  it  in  a 
location  which  indeed  could  best  spare  so  large  a  tax,  but 
which  modesty  forbids  me  to  make  particular  reference  to,  it 
was  only  by  a  diligent  and  scientific  application  of  pins,  that 
I  could  induce  it  to  preserve  even  a  bifurcate  appearance, 
while  the  assistance  of  one  hand  was  necessary  to  keep 
the  entire  compilation  from  demolition,  and  the  wearer 
from  the  miserable  fate  of  Parson  Adams,  in  his  cele- 
brated nocturnal  encounter  in  the  inn.  Long  ere  this,  oh, 
most  comical  of  costumes,  thou  hast  found  appropriate  ser- 
vice in  the  terrifying  of  crows,  or  more  noble  fate,  ''the  paper 
mill  bath  claimed  thee  for  its  own.'' 

Thus  caparisoned,  however,  and  a  an  air  of  such 

desolation  as  might  be  considered  appropriate  to  preserve 
the  tout  ensemble,  I  wended  my  way  to  the  offiee.  As  I  passed 
along,  my  raggamuilin  appearance  excited,  of  course,  a  little 
comment,  which  I  bore  with  philautrophic  patience  till  one 
villainous  "reb,"  presuming  on  the  position  pf  the  hand  that 
was  doing  the  duty  of  a  pair  of  suspenders,  suggested  with  a 
solemn  wag  of  his  head,  "  maybe  a  little  Jamaiky  ginger  might 
help  yer,  mister !  " 

To  the  office  I  went,  however,  but  my  preparations  turned 
out  to  be  all  in  vain.  My  package  consisted  of  a  beef  tongue 
and  a  can  of  "  solidified  cream."  I  returned  to  my  quarters 
with  my  plunder,  gave  myself  a  denuding  shake,  which  re- 
duced my  dress  pretty  much  to  the  condition  of  the  memo- 
rable "one  horse  shay,"  and  summoning  my  mess-mates, 
soon  forgot  both  the  troubles  and  the  farce  of  costuming  in 
diligent  application  to  the  "provant."  Ob,  Dalgetty,  prince 
and  prototype  of  the  military  Bohemian,  with  what  wisdom 
and  justice  did  you  assign  the  highest  place  in  the  soldier's 
scale  to  "  rations." 

It  is  quite  humiliating  \,  bose  idea  of  the  superior 


56  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

dignity  of  humanity  is  so  very  exalted,  to  confess  how  much 
of  the  good  and  evil,  great  and  little,  objective  as  well  as  sub- 
jective, of  life  is  dependant  on  the  average  dinner  a  man  gets, 
but  the  fact  is  indisputable.  I  claim  no  originality  for  this 
reflection.     Forty  years  ago  Byron  wrote 

" all  human  history  attests 

That  happiness  for  man — the  huDgry  sinner — 
Since  Eve  ate  apples,  much  depends  on  dinner." 

And  whoever  troubles  his  brain  with  the  unfashionable  labor 
of  thinking,  will  be  apt  to  conclude  with  me,  that  much  be- 
sides happiness  hangs  on  the  same  thread.  What  is  the  reason 
that  the  Romans  conquered  the  world  ?  Merely  this — they 
were  generous  feeders.  Who  can  account  for  the  fact  that  the 
hardy  Scotsman  has  not  been  able  to  hold  his  own  against  his 
less  stalwart  neighbor  below  the  Tweed,  except  as  a  result  of 
the  fact  that  oat  meal,  though  flanked  by  usquebaugh,  is  no 
match  for  wheat  flour  with  only  beer  for  an  ally  ?  Why  have 
the  Indians  so  steadily  and  so  extensively  bowed  their  n 
before  the  English  ?  Preachers,  and  philanthropists,  and  edi- 
tors, and  place-men,  all  have  their  ready-made  theories  to  ac- 
count for  the  phenomenon,  but  the  patent  fact,  which  they 
won't  confe-s,  because  it  don't  suit  their  hypotheses,  is  that 
Nana  Saib  ate  rice,  but  Llaveloek  roast  beef.  Why  was  Cassias 
a  conspirator  ?  Because  he  was  "  lean  and  hungry."  Why 
did  Napoleon  lose  Waterloo  ?  Merely  because  he  was  too  fat 
as  he  confesses.  Why  wont  revolution  succeed  in  Ireland '( 
Depend  upon  it.  the  root  of  the  mischief  is  the  potato.  Who 
could  be  humane  on  raw  beef  or  virtuous  on  truffles  ? 

Shakespeare  recognized  the  general  connection  in  his 
broad  assertion  "  Fat  paunches  have  lean  pates,"  and  many  a 
long  century  before  him,  the  candid  Horace,  regardless  of  the 
danger  he  ran  of  having  his  criticism  turned  on  his  jolly  ro- 
tund little  self,  uttered  the  same  thought. 

u  Pingue  peous  domino  facias,  cfc  cetera,  pratier} 
Ingenium." 

Indeed,  I  am  Dot  sure  that  those  philosophers  were  wholly 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  57 

in  the  wrong  who  located  the  soul  in  the  stomach,  and  being 
an  optimist  I  find  great  comfort  in  the  thought  that  if  this  be 
true,  few  will  be  lost  for  want  of  attention  to  this  tabernacle 
of  the  nobler  part  of  man. 


CHAPTER   X. 


Officers  Leaving — I  >  rth  Division 

in  Trouble — (  Waking— Negro  Exodus — A  new  Prison — 

The  Fourth — Maryland  and  Mary 

Thursday,  June  23rd.  The  bfficera  who  were  confined  in  a 
pen  near  us,  were  to-day  removed,  preparatory  to  sending 
them  to  Fort  Delaware.  It  has  been  determined  to  keep  no 
commissioned  prisoners  at  this  point.  To-dny,  the  negroes 
are  again  on  guard,  and  are  very  insolent.  Like  all  the  rest 
of  these  sable  patriots,  they  seem  to  have  exhausted  the  re- 
sources of  darkness  to  form  their  complexions,  and  their  con- 
duct is  as  black  as  their  skin.  There,  is  however  a  compen- 
sation in  all  this — it  is  exhilarating  to  witness  the  effect  on 
the  prisoners — how  it  deepens  and  widens  the  gulf  between 
them  and  the  canting  crew,  who  seek  such  agencies  to  make 
imprisonment  torture.  The  truth  is,  it  is  everyAvhere  apparent 
throughout  the  history  of  this  conflict,  that  all  that  is  necessary 
to  crystallize  into  unsolva~ble  hate,  the  lingering  lukewarmness 
of  a  Southern  man  or  community,  whose  faint  hearts  go  out 
hungering  after  the  Egyptian  flesh-pots,  is  to  bring  them  face 
to  face  with  the  enemy.  The  cruelty,  blood-thirstiness,  ava- 
rice, hypocricy,  vulgar  despotism  and  brutality,  which  charac- 
terize SO  many  of  our  enemies,  need  only  to  be  oiu-e.  seen, 
and  above  all  once  felt,  to  summon  every  Southron  to  the  al 
tar,  that  ho  may  take  the  Carthaginian  oath  of  undying  hate 
8 


58  PRISONER   OF    WAR. 

to  his  enemies.  And  hence  it  is,  that  wherever  the  fortune  of 
war  has  set  the  foot  of  a  Yankee  General  in  command  of  Yan- 
kee troops,  there  is  to  be  found  the  most  unyielding,  uncom- 
promising fealty  to  the  patriot  cause,  and  the  most  inextinguish- 
able hate  to  the  Yankees.  Our  stupid  foes  imagine  that  the 
desolation  and  ruin,  which  they  everywhere  dispense,  terri- 
fy the  hostile  and  re-assure  the  wavering,  and  that  these 
Christian  arguments  will  not  fail  to  produce  conviction  where- 
ever  strongly  presented.  But  they  are  as  ignorant  as  they 
are  depraved— such  treatment  has  never  subdued  a  free  people 
in  all  the  tide  of  time.  The  dragon  teeth  they  sow,  spring  up 
behind  them  an  army  of  mailed  men.  The  whirlwind  comes 
of  the  sown  wind — and  out  of  the:  *  if  ruined  homesteads, 
forth  frcm  the  bosom  of  the  scourged  earth,  out  of  the 
agony  of  dying  men,  and  the  worse  than  dying  women  m 
born  the  fierce  insatiate  cry  for  vengeance,  and  the  uncon- 
querable resolution  to  be  free.  And  similar  in  kind  is  the 
result  of  the  insults  deliberately  and  purposely  Inflicted  on 
prisoners. 

An  order  was  issued  to  us  to-day,  prohibiting  the  lighting 
of  any  more  fires  in  camp,  so  that  the  extra  cooking,  which 
we  have  been  able  to  give  our  half  raw  rations  is  foreclosed. 
Hoping  to  be  able  to  perform  iportant,  if  not  necessary 

service  to  my  "salt  horse"  to-day,  I  went  out  on  the   beach 
and  was  lighting  a  lire  there,  when  one  of  the   ebony  cu 
dians  ordered  "dat  Arc  out  d — n  quick,"  and  I  ate  half-ravr 
meat  perforce.     Before  night-fall  our  Yankee  sergeant  visited 
the  various  tents  in  our  Division  and  "  coi  d  "  the  light- 

wood,  we  had  purchased  and  stored  away  as  fuel.  It  was  a 
trilling  matter  unquestionably,  but  the  air  of  satisfaction  with 
which  this  worthy  "  clothed  in  a  little  brief  authority,"  per* 
formed  his  I  ve  to  each  motion  of  the  vulgarian  the 

sting  of  a  personal  affront. 

The  members  of  tfe  Fourth  Division  came  to  exceeding 
grief  to-day.  Some  of  the  tin  cans  in  which  our  slops  are 
furnished,  were  missing  from  the  tables  of  that  division  after 
breakfast,  and  when  the  "rebs"  of  that  sectioq  marched  up 


FIVE    MOKTHS    LT&OTSQ   THE   YANKEES.  59 

For  their  dinner,  they  were  quietly  told,  to  expect  no  rations 
till  the  missing  cups  were  found.  The  Edinburg  Review  rose 
according  to   S\  i  of  polities,"  and   I 

suppose  the  return  of  the  missing  tin-ware  may  be  coerced  by 
stress  of  starvation.  At  all  events  the  Fourth  Division 
"  rebs  "  must  test,  the  efficacy  of  the  system  through  much  ali- 
mentary tribulation. 

I  find  I  am  becoming  Sybaritic,  and  though  a  crumpled  rose 
leaf  might  not  in1  fatally  with  my  sleep,  the  planks  on 

the  floor  of  my  kind  host's  house  certainly  do.  This  morn- 
ing, therefore,  I  conceived  a  French  bedstead — this  evening 
it  is  un  fait  <  .     An  emp  'barrel  and  two  poles 

about  six  and  a  half  feet  long,  constituted  my  stock.  I  knock- 
ed the  barrel  to  pieces  and  nailed  the  staves  on  the  poles, 
placed  about  two  feet  apart  and  parallel.  Then  nailing  over 
the  hoops  which  !  bad  i  traitened  out  for  the  purpose,  I  had  a 
comfortable  sprin  day-time,  I  shall 

place  on  its  end  at   tl  .of  the  ranche  out    of  the  way, 

and  in  the  night  tin.  1  at  length,  between  th«  bunks 

with  which  our  1  already  supplied.     This  is  the  cheap- 

est and  best  of  impr  teads,  and  I   commend  it  to 

gentlemen  of  expensive  tastes  who  may  be  similarly  circum- 
stanced. 

The  boys  are  laughing  at  the  summons  which  S.,  one  of  my 
fellow  Petersburgers  got  to-day,  from  a  negro  sentinel.  S. 
had  on  when  captured,  and  I  suppose  still  possesses,  a  tall  bea- 
rer of  the  antique  pattern,  considered  inseparable  from  ex- 
treme respectability  in  the  last  decade,  and  for  many  a  year 
before.  While  wandering  around  the  enclosure,  seeking  I 
suspect  "what  he  might  devour,"  he  accidentally  stepped  be- 
yond "the  dead  line,"  and  was  suddenly  arrested  by  a  sum- 
mons from  the  nearest  negro  on  the  parapet,  who  seemed 
to  be  in  doubt  whether  so  well  dressed  a  man  could  be  a 
"reb,"  and  therefore  whether  he  should  be  shot  at  once. 

"  White  man,  you  b'long  in  dar 

"  Yes." 

"Well  aim  or  sense  den  to  cross  dat  line  ?  " 


60  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

"  I  did  not  notice  the  line/' 

"  Well  you  better  notice  it,  an'  dat  quick  or  I'll  blow  half 
dat  nail  hag  off?  " 

It  is  needless  to  say,  that  the  owner  of  the  "  nail  kag," 
u  stood  not  upon  the  order  of  his  going." 

Friday,  July  1st.  To-day,  one  of  the  negro  regiments  that 
has  been  guarding  us — the  36th  U.  S.  Colored — loft  this 
point  for  the  front,  their  places  being  taken  by  another  black 
regiment  ordered  here,  it  is  said,  by  Butler  for  cowardice  in 
presence  of  the  enemy,  (good  joke  for  Butler,)  and  the  5th 
Massachusetts  Colored  Cavalry.  Negro-like,  the  out-going 
regiment  left  singing,  in  a  most  orthodox  plantation  whine, 
the  National  (African)  Anthem,  "John  Brown's  body  lies 
mouldering  in  the  ground." 

One  of  the  disgraced  (!)  darkies  was  standing  near  me  as 
the  regiment  passed  our  gates  with  every  jaw  extended,  and 
with  a  knowing  wag  of  the  head,  lie  observed  "Niggers  is 
such  fools.  Dey  is  gwine  away  wid  der  moufs  open,  but  dcy'll 
came  bach  wid  'em  shot,  I  'speck."  On  they  travelled  making 
the  welkin  ring  with  " 

"John  Brown's  body  lies  a  mouldering  in  the  ground, 
John  Brown's  body  lies  a  mouldering  in  the  ground, 
John  Brown's  body  lies  a  mouldering  in  the  ground, 
But  his  soul  is  a  marching  on." 

AH  of  which  and  much  more  of  the  same  sort  was  chanted 
■with  that  monotonous  cadence  that  many  a  time  and  oft  we  have 
all  heard  at  camp-meetings  and  corn-shuckings,  under  the  in- 
spiring influence  of  religion  in  the  one,  and — horresco  referens — 
rot-o-ut  in  the  other.  It  was  not  many  weeks  before  their  man- 
o-led  bodies  were  clogging  up  that  horrible  valley  of  death* 
which  the  fatal  mining  of  Grant  clove  in  a  certain  memorable 
hill-side  of  Petersburg,  where  for  nearly  an  hour,  at  short 
o-rape  range,  the  cannoniers  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
dealt  destruction  from  their  safe  embrasures  upon  the  Writhing, 
powerless  and  baffled  columns  of  assault. 

Saturday,  July  2nd.  A  notice  was  posted  on  the  public 
bulletin  board   to-day,    requiring    all    prisoners    who    were 


FIVE    MOXTTTS    4.MGNG    THB    YANKEES.  61 

brought  from  Belle  Plain,  on  the  23rd  of  May,  to  fall  in  at  the 
gate,  at  9  a.  m.  This  is  preparatory  to  a  move  somewhere, 
and  the  rumor  is  that  Elmira,  N.  Y.,  is  to  be  the  point  of  des- 
tination. I  hope  our  turn  will  not  be  long  coming,  or  this  in- 
fernal water  will  settle  the  question  of  exchange  as  far  as  re- 
gards me  personally,  in  a  very  unsatisfactory  manner.  I  am 
not  at  all  superstitious  in  the  matter  of  sepulture,  but,  if  I 
have  an  antipathy  thereanent,  it  is  to  being  buried  at  Point 
Lookout.  I  hardly  think  the  example  of  AVellington  in  the 
old  world,  or  Webster  in  the. new,  both  of  whom  died  by  the 
sea,  could  reconcile  me  to  such  -a  fate  just  now. 

Monday,  July  4th.  This  is  the  day  that  all  America  was 
wont  to  dedicate  to  lemonade,  ice  cream,  pic-nics  and  patriot- 
ism. I  remember  well  one  "  Fourth,"  so  long  back  that  I  de- 
cline to  enter  into  any  vulgar  arithmetic  about  it,  when,  in 
obedience  to  a.  custom  almost  as  universal  as  that  sanguinary 
Indian  rule  which  denies  the  privileges  of  the  tribe  to  a  young 
man  until  he  scalps  an  enemy,  I,  who  write  to  you,  assumed  the 
toga  virilis  by  means  of  a  Fourth  of  July  oration,  and  worked 
myself  into  a  perspiration,  and  my  amiable  auditory  into  demon- 
strative gratification  over  the  glories  and  greatness,  the  prowess 
and  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  !  And  here  am  I,  this  blessed  day 
of  grace,  suffering  condign  pains  and  penalties  at  the  hands  of 

the  successor  of  Washington,  for  the but,  hang  politics,  I 

made  a  vow  twenty  days  ago  that,  unless  mightily  moved  by 
some  Yankee,  I  would  eschew  all  thought  of  politics  until  I  saw 
my  own  good  flag  once  more,  and  as  you  have  done  me  no  par- 
ticular harm  that  I  wot  of,  most  courteous  reader,  I'll  spare  you. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that  Point  Lookout,  July  4th,  1SG4,  and  Peters- 
burg, July  4th,  18 — ,  were  about  as  different  dates  in  all  their 
relations  to  the  writer,  as  any  two  points  of  time  could  well  be. 
On  the  latter  occasion,  I  enjoyed  various  exhilarations,  which 
now  in  the  retrospect  refuse  to  arrange  themselves  in  any  regu- 
larity or  method,  but  present  a  confused  melange  of  ice  cream, 
Declaration  of  Independence,  sherry-cobbler,  military  proces- 
sion, national  salute,  fruit  cake,  toasts,  orator  of  the  day,  exces- 
sively wet   shirt   collar,   millions  of  fans,— I  wont  qualify  as  to 


62  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

the  number, — pretty  women,  (mainly  from  the  country !)  con- 
gratulations and  an  immense  dinner — admire  the  climax  !  But 
the  other  date  ushered  in  divers  miseries,  and  nothing  but  hard 
tack  and  fat  pork  !  Verily,  verily,  Plautus  is  right,  "  The  gods 
have  us  men  for  foot-balls." 

All  this  and  much  more  of  the  same  sort,  which  I  charitably 
spare  you,  ran  through  my  mind  as  I  took  my  usual  morning 
promenade  on  the  beach  to-day,  and  watched  the  streamers  and 
flags  spreading  from  main-top  to  bow-sprit  over  the  wicked  look- 
ing gunboat  that  watched  (and  showed  its  teeth,  for  that  matter) 
like  a  naval  Cerberus  over  the  gates  of  our  "  pen."  At  12,  M., 
the  stars  and  stripes  were  flung  out,  and  the  national  salute  of 
thirty-I-do-not-know-how-many  guns  fired,  amid  the  piping  and 
drumming  and  braying  of  Yankee  Doodle,  from  divers  bands 
ashore  and  aboard.  The  "  rebs  "  had  no  idea,  however,  of  per- 
mitting the  Yanks  to  monopolize  the  fun,  and  on  a  couple  of 
the  patrician  mansions  of  "  cracker-box  row,"  there  might  be 
seen  diminutive  copies  of  our  own  Southern  Cross,  gaily  flung 
cut  "to  the  bold  breeze  of  heaven,"  after  the  manner  detailed 
in  one  of  the  many  metrical  villainies  which  have  been  palmed 
off  on  the  long  suffering  Southern  people,  under  the  name  of 
National  Anthems,  any  time  these  four  years  back. 

I  noticed  particularly  on  the  "Home  Again"  house  a  pretty 
Confederate  flag,  which  must  either  have  been  manufactured  in- 
side, or  conveyed  very  surreptitiously  from  the  outside  by  some 
ingenious  sympathiser  -  a  icoraan"  for  a  ducat" — who  had  the 
courage  to  dare,  and  the  wit  to  baffle  Yankee  jealousy  of  every- 
thing suggestive  of  the  "so  called."  This  house  was  occupied, 
and  if  it  stands,  I  suppose  still  is,  by  Marylanders,  and  I  will 
not  have  a  better  opportunity  than  this  to  challenge  for  these 
exiles  from  that  noble  state,  a  reversal  of  the  unjust  reproach 
which  has  been  cast  upon  her  froao  various  quarters,  and  in 
various  forms  in  the  South.  It  is  doubtless  true,  that  there  are 
cowards  and  knaves  in  Maryland,  and  it  is  not  less  true  that 
every  Southern  State  and  Northern,  could  furnish  many  a  sam- 
ple to  place  by  the  side  of  those  who  have  earned  so  much 
reproach  for  her.     But  it  is  quite  as  true  that  no  people  in  any 


FIVE   MONTHS  AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  G3 

part  of  the  world  have  furnished  more  illustrious  examples  of 
pure,  unselfish,  uncompromising,  all  sacrificing  devotion  than 
now  distinguishes  the  citizens  of  that  gallant  State.  I  knew 
much  of  this  before.  I  had  seen  her  biave  sons  suffering  a  long 
and  bitter  exile  from  all  that  was  dear  to  them — uncheered  by 
hope  of  speedy  return — cut  off  from  their  families — hurled,  in 
many  cases,  from  affluence  to  poverty — condemned  to  the  dis- 
heartening spectacle  of  witnessing  their  possessions  enjoyed, 
their  friends  imprisoned,  their  state  controlled  by  an  abhorred 
race,  imported  from  New  England  to  colonize  and  convert 
Maryland.  And  yet,  I  had  seen  them  gallantly  bearing  a  ban- 
ner which  no  Land  of  ours  has  been  able  to  maintain  on  any  spot 
of  Maryland's  soil  for  thirty  days,  hoping  against  hope  while 
the  weary  years  rolled  on  for  the  day  of  deliverance,  and  fal- 
tering not,  nor  failing,  th<  r  hearts  sank  in  the  pain  and 
palsy  of  that  hope  forever  deferred.  So.  have  I  seen  her  fail- 
daughters,  many  of  them  tenderly  and  delicately  raised,  forced 
to  choose  exile  as  the  alternative  of  a  jail — perchance  for  some 
act  of  common  humanity  to  a  Confederate  soldier — or  volunta- 
rily embracing  the  perils  and  hardships,  because  in  their  gener- 
ous, loyal  hearts,  approving  the  principles,  and  sympathising  with 
the  sufferings  of  our  beleaguered  Confederacy,  spending  their 
days  near  the  hospital  cot,  ami  devoting  their  nights  to  the  toils 
of  the  busy  needle,  for  an  army  that  has  never  yet  been  strong 
enough,  to  give  them  an  escort  for  one  short  day  to  their  hospi- 
table city  of  monuments.  All  this  have  I  seen,  and  have  seen 
it  oftentimes  repeated,  and  I  have  placed  it  to  the  credit  of  that 
noble  State  against  the  recreancy  of  the  few  Marylanders  who 
have  skulked  among  us,  and  the  many  not  Marylanders,  who 
have  counterfeited  the  name  to  cloak  their  cowardice.  But  it 
was  not  till  I  became  a  prisoner  that  I  appreciated  to  the  full  the 
devotion  of  her  children.  Wl  Q  cheerfully  enduring 
the  privations  of  a  long  imprisonment,  almost  within  sight  of  their 
own  home:-,  many  of  them  persecuted  with  solicitations  from  their 
nearest  relati  ome  out,  take  the  oath,  and  enjoy  every 
comfort  that  wealth  and  society  (  r,  all  of  tl  em  ci  a  oious 
that  a  word  woul  !  i  A  them  forth 


64  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

to  their  families,  with  no  one  to  question  or  reproach  them ;  and 
then  learned  of  the  many  hundreds  of  Marylanders  at  various 
periods  who  were  tenants  of  that  pen,  some  of  whom  are  prisoners 
of  over  a  year's  standing,  not  five  in  all  had  taken  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  Yankee  government,  I  felt  that  the  best  of  us 
might  take  a  lesson  from  their  patriotic  constancy.  And  when  a 
few  months  afterwards,  I  saw  some  of  these  very  men  marched 
like  felons  through  their  own  fair  city,  without  permission  to 
whisper  a  word — scarcely  to  cast  a  look  at  mothers  and  sisters 
standing  by,  who  were  heart-hungry  for  the  poor  privilege  of  a 
mere  greeting,  and  yet  saw  no  cheek  blanch,  no  muscle  quiver,  no 
weakening  of  their  proud  res©lve  to  fight  the  fight  out  for  prin- 
ciple, through  every  sacrifice  and  every  peril — calmly,  nay,  with 
a  smile  on  their  lips,  half  of  triumph,  half  of  scorn,  answering 
the  taunts  of  their  keepers — they  inarching  from  prison  to  exile 
while  I  was  marching  from  prison  to  my  home,  I  felt  as  I 
now  feel  the  wish  that  the  Confederacy  was  peopled  with  such 
men.  Let  not  their  names  nor  their  deeds  die — let  some  pen 
meet  for  the  task,  gather  now  while  the  events  are  fiedi,  the 
memorials  of  her  children  in  this  war  for  freedom  where  they 
have  so  little  to  hope — so  much  to  fear,  and  though  the  fortune 
of  war  should  separate  them  and  the  Confederacy  from  their  be- 
loved State,  let  history  do  justice  to  the  faithful  living,  and  let  a 
nation's  gratitude  lay  immortal  laurels  o'er 

11  the  sacred  grave 

Of  the  last  few  who,  vainly  brave, 

Die  for  the  land  they  cannot  save." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

More  Prisoners  Leaving — Sinking  of  the  Alabama — Miss 
Gilbert's  Career — Sutlers  Irirfcs — Water  getting  Scarce — Going 
Out  on  Detail — Off  for  Elmira. 

Tuesday,  July  5th.  Another  batch  of  prisoners,  those  who 
arrived  here  on  the  8th  of  Juno,  received  a  summons  yesterday 
to  be  in  readiness  to  leave,  and  Mere  carried  out  of  camp.  As 
we  were  the  next  tenants  to  these  in  the  order  of  time,  I  presume 
avc  will  be  next  called. 

Two  items  of  news  are  furnished  us  by  the  papers  to-day — one 
the  anticipation  of  a  raid  by  Early  into  Maryland — the  other, 
the  destruction  of  the  Alabama  by  the  Kearsage.  Fortunately 
the  two  came  together,  so  we  managed  to  endure  the  latter  with 
some  composure,  though  both  surprised  and  mortified  that 
Semmes  should  have  lost  his  ship,  and  the  Confederacy  his  in- 
:;ible  services,  for  a  time  at  least,  on  a  point  of  professional 
etiquette.  Still  it  may  be  said  of  most  naval  as  well  as  of  most 
other  duels,  that  the  result  is  purely  an  accident.  The  exploding 
or  failure  to  explode  of  a  particular  shell—an  event  utterly  be- 
yond the  skill  or  control  of  any  one  aboard,  may,  and  in  this  in- 
stance did,  constitute  the  whole  matter.    No  one  succnests  a  doubt 

CO 

of  the  courage  and  coolness  with  which  Semmes  pursued  his 
chivalric  resolve,  and  the  result  might  well  have  been  anticipated 
aside  from  the  intervention  of  chance,  when  we  r<  licet  that  one 
•  1  was  a  merchantman  in  fact,  as  far  as  regards  its  pursuits, 
with  a  crew  of  common  sailors  with  but  one  battle  experience, 
while  the  other  was  a  man-of-war  with  a  crew  trained  especially 
and  exclusively  for  this  description  of  dnt}\  And  yet  the  Yan- 
kees themselves  admit  that  if  a  certain  shell  that  penetrat*  d  their 
stern  had  exploded,  Messrs.  Winslow  &  Co.  would  have  been  very 
thankful  to  the  Greyhound  for  any  such  little  favors  as  were 
subsequently  extended  to  the  Confederates  :  while  the  French 
0 


66  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

4  * 

account  adds  that  Capt.  Semmes  endeavored  from  the  first  to 

discard  the  element  of  accident  from  the  fight,  by  getting  to  close 
quarters,  and  settling  the  question  in  a  fair,  stand  up,  hand  to 
hand  encounter — a  manoeuvre  that  the  Yank  had  no  stomach  for, 
and  successfully  used  his  superior  sailing  qualities  to  avoid.  Still 
it  is  a  great  victory  for  Doodledom,  and  no  higher  compliment 
could  be  paid  the  Alabama  and  her  gallant  company,  than  is 
furnished  in  the  extravagant  joy  of  our  enemies  over  the  loss  of 
the  "great  pirate."  The  "old  flag"  may  again  perchance  steal 
up  to  the  "top"  of  the  boasted  merchant  marine,  a  half  a  mil- 
lion tons  of  which  the  dreaded  "pirate"  drove  from  the  seas  in 
six  months  !  The  hundreds  of  pious  frauds  whereby  nominal 
transfers  of  Boston  and  New  York  bottoms  were  made  to  Eng- 
lish and  French  owners,  so  that  the  "Yanks"  might  pocket  the 
receipts  without  taking  the  risks  of  the  carrying  trade,  will  now 
be  repented  of  and  renounced — said  frauds  being  no  longer  pro- 
fitable. Commodore  Vanderbilt  may  make  the  run  from  Panama 
without  a  convoy,  and  Cape  Cod  may  fish  in  peace. 

Meanwhile  the  Suabians  in  the  Quaker  State  are  hurrying  off 
their  beeves  and  blinding  their  horses,*  and  General  Wallace  is 
putting  Baltimore  in  a  state  of  defence,  an  operation  that  seems 
"  always  doing,  never  done." 

Started  to-day  on  a  literary  hunt  and  fished  up  from  the  re* 
cesses  of  one  of  the  cook-houses  a  promising  looking  volume  ar- 
rayed in  all  the  attractive  gorgeousness  of  faultless  typography 
and  binding,  and  entitled  "Miss  Gilbert's  Career."  The  title 
page  announces  that  it  was  the  20th  thousand,  a  circumstance  I 
can  only  explain,  in  common  justice  to  Yankee  taste,  by  suppos- 
ing that  the  20th  thousand  was  printed  before  the  first  ditto. 

*  This  perfectly  original  barbarity  was  committed  time  and  again  on, 
the  occasion  of  General  Lee's  entry  into  Pennsylvania,  in  June,  1863  p 
Rather  than  take  the  trouble  to  remove  these  horses,  they  would  blind 
the  poor  brutes  by  puncturing  their  eyes  with  a  needle,  thus  making 
them  useless  to  us  for  ariny  purposes,'while  their  value  aa  draft  animals., 
or  for  farm  uses  was  not  very  largely  impaired.  In  many  cases  we 
found  the  poor  beasts  with  their  eyes  still  overflowing  with  tears  and 
blood,  from  the  merciless  hands  of  their  masters. 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  67 

Such -a  common  place  vulgarity  as  Miss  Gilbert,  I  undertake  to 
say,  never  could  have  been  produced  on  any  soil  of  earth  other 
than  ';  Massachusetts  Bay  and  Providence  Plantations."  There 
are  situations,  however,  wherein  anything  in  print  is  endurable, 
and  I  waded,  with  the  patience  of  a  professional  proof-reader, 
through  every  sentence  and  syllable  of  the  dreary  platitudes  of 
Miss  Gilbert.  I  record  this  incident  solely  as  a  contribution  to 
the  next  edition  of  Abercrombie  on  the  Mind,  since  it  estab- 
lishes beyond  cavil  the  enormous  vis  inertiee  of  the  human  intel- 
lect, and  I  commend  the  book  to  all  those  who  believe  that  the 
brain,  like  the  muscles,  can  be  strengthened  by  subjection  to  un- 
usual and  repeated  strains.  Dr.  Windship,  the  modern  Hercules, 
boasts  that  he  can  raise  0G00  pounds — a  capacity  he  has  acquired 
by  constant  effort  in  that  direction,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that 
equal  diligence  in  the  rsental  line  would  ensure  results  equally 
marvellous.  If  any  one  wishes  to  try  the  experiment,  I  recom- 
mend mental  calisthenics  with  a  pair  of  such  books  as  the  afore- 
paid  "  Career,"  as  I  consider  it  about  as  heavy  as  the  stout  doc- 
tor's dumb-bells,  (the  source  of  all  his  marvellous  strength,) 
which  weigh  as  much  as  a  flour  barrel  apiece. 

Y\'ednesday,  July  6th.  More  rumors.  Grant,  say  the  cor- 
respondents, has  demanded  the  surrender  of  Petersburg.  Peui- 
'  Early  is  playing  the  wild  with  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
railroad,  and,  greatest  grief  of  all  to  us,  the  sutler  informs  us 
that  the  further  SLdc  of  articles  of  food  to  us  will  be  suspended, 
as  the  authorities  arc  informed  that  our  sutlers  are  prohibited 
from  selling  such  things  to  their  prisoners.  On  hen  ring  this 
announcement,  I  made  my  moan  to  the  first  acquaintance  I  met, 
who  happened  to  be  en  old  prisoner.  He  greatly  calmed  my 
fears  by  assuring  me  that  this  was  an  old  dodge  designed  to 
bring  in  the  sutler's  checks  in  order  tq  the  entire  disposal 

of  the  slock  on  hand,  which  was  probably  larger  than  he  desired 
to  keep  this  hot  weather.  This  was  very  reassuring,  as  I  had 
just  received  notice  that  there  was  a  "money  letter"  in  the 
Major's  hands  for  me,  whose  advent  and  use  I  anticipated  with 
much  watering  of  the  mouth. 

The  ruse  of  course  succeeded,  and  the  sutler's  "powerful" 


68  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

butter,  game  herrings,  animated  cheese,  and  sour  meal,  began 
to  disappear  with  a  celerity  that  mast  have  been  very  satis- 
factory to  him,  if  not  to  the   deluded  Confederates,  who  were 
thus  seduced  into  an  unusual  quantity  of  purchases. 
Oh  Yank,  Yank,  how  art  thou  Yankeefied  ? 

Thursday,  July  7th.  The  supply  of  water  is  getting  very 
scant,  and  the  quality  very-  infamous.  Guards  have  be'en 
placed  over  some  of  the  pumps  to  prevent  waste,  and  these 
beino-  "negroes,"  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to  get  a  drop,  to  ask 
permission  in  respectful  terms  of  the  sable  sentinels  who,  to  do 
them  justice,  do  not  seem  disposed  to  abuse  their  position. 
I  attribute  this  to  the  circumstance  that,  these  are  negroes, 
who  have  been  in  service,  and  any  soldier  will  tell  you,  that 
an  active  campaign  is  very  humanizing.  With  every  pre-' 
caution  the  amount  is  still  so  insufficient  that  a  water-boat, 
had  to  be  sent  down  from  Baltimore  to-day,  to  furnish  a  sup- 
ply to  the  hospitals,  and  a  detail  has  been  engaged  must  of 
the  morning,  wheeling  in  barrels  of  it  for  the  use  of  the   sick. 

There  is. quite  a  contention  for  the  privilege  of  working  in 
this  as  on  other  details,  there  being  some  privileges  attached 
thereto.  Almost  every  day  there  is  some  description  of  labor 
to  be  performed  outside  of  the  pen,  for  which  volunteers  are 
sought  and  easily  obtained  among  the  prisoners,  Those  se- 
lected for  the  work  are  mustered  into,  a  company,  their  names 
taken  down,  and  under  Yankee  guards  they  are  carried  outside 
to  the  scene  of  their  work.  This  consists  principally  in  the 
unloading  of  vessels  at  the  wharf,  in  building  hospitals,  commis- 
sary store-rooms,  stables,  &c,  &o.  The  legitimate  benefits  of 
these  details  are,  first,  occupation,  second,  a  little  liberty,  third, 
the  chance  to  hear  some  news,  and  fourth,  a  small  piece  of  to- 
bacco. The  semi-'legitimate  benefits  are,  the  gathering  up  of 
refuse  pieces  of  plank,  old  iron,  nails  and  the  like,  which  com- 
mand a  high  price  (in  tobacco  or' hard  tack,)  within  the 
"  pen."  The  illegitimate,  and  I  fear  the  most  operative  in- 
ducement with  some  of  the  unregenerate  "rebs,"  is  the  oppor- 
tunity of  pilfering  along  the  wharf  and  among  the  vessels 
whose   cargoes   they   are   discharging,  which  the  nature  of 


FIVE    MONTHS   AMONG  THE   YANKEES.  69 

their  duties  frequently  affords.  From  one  cause  or  another 
— generally,  I  suppose,  from  a  combination  of  several,  the 
detail  list  is  always  full,  and  places  thereon  command  a 
premium. 

In  the  earlier  periods  of  Point  Lookout  history,  there  was 
an  additional  advantage  in  these  details,  inasmuch  as  the 
opportunity  of  escape  was  thereby  frequently  afforded  and 
embraced,  but  the  multiplication  of  the  precautions  which 
experience  of  "rebel"  ingenuity  occasioned,  has  rendered 
the  blockade  for  several  months  past  prett}'-  effectual. 

Friday,  July  8th.  No  newspapers  permitted  to  be  brought 
into  camp  to-day. .  Earfy  is  doubtless  frightening  Father  Abe 
prodigiously,  and  he  fears  the  stimulating  effect,  on  his  mis- 
guided enemies  in  prison.  The  weather  has  been  furiously 
hot  for  a  week  past,  and  as  the  earth  is  a  sparkling  sand,  and 
everything  about  us  is  a  glaring  white,  many  besides  myself 
are  suffering  with  inflamed  eyes, — a  chronic  disorder  here. 

Saturday,  July  9th.  To-day  is  the  first  mensiversary  of 
my  imprisonment.  Any  super-  fastidious  reader  who  objects 
to  my  word-coinage,  is  hereby  informed,  that  he  is  at  perfect 
liberty  to  draw  his  pencil  through  the  obnoxious  poly- 
syllable and  substitute  therefor  any  word,  or  form  of  words, 
that  will  better  please  him,  but  I  hold  it,  nevertheless,  to  be  a 
perfectly  defensible  creation. 

At  10  this  morning,  the  prisoners  who  arrived  on  the  14th 
of  June,  of  whom  we  were  a  part,  were  summoned  before  the 
gate  and  in  a  short  time  we  had  gathered  our  few  "  traps," 
had  made  our  adieu  to  the  friends  who  were  to  be  left  behind, 
and  having  been  formed  into  line  and  counted,  we  were 
inarched  into  the  officer's  pen,  now  empty.  A  couple  of 
hours  afterwards,  we  were  ordered  to  the  Provost  Marshal's 
3  where  we  were  divided  into  companies,  muster-rolls 
made  out,  and  under  a  strong  guard  of  the  V.  R.  Corps,  we 
were  carried  to  the  wharf  which  was  the  scene  of  our  exceed- 
ing discomfort  a  few  weeks  before,  and  at  1  p.  m.,  were 
stowed  away,  about  three  hundred  of  us,  aboard  a  crazy  craft, 
rejoicing  in  the  sounding  title  "ElCid."     Down  the  ladder, 


70  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

into  a  reeking  hold  where  the  heat  and  stench  would  have 
overpowered  any  other  animal  than  a  Confederate  prisoner, 
we  trooped  along,  packing  ourselves  away  in  the  fashion 
which  the  mellifluous  Wilberforce  was  so  fond  of  expatiating 
on,  under  the  name  of  "  the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage," 
until  the  last  "  Southern  Confederate  "  crossed  the  taffrail,  the 
gang-plank  was  drawn  in,  and  at  2  p.  m.,  we  turned  our 
backs  on  Point  Lookout,  we  hoped  forever. 

"  0  iver  iveis,  etc."  you'll  find  the  rest  in  Schiller's  Don 
Carlos,  but  lest  the  great  German  play  may  not  be  at  hand, 
I  recall  a  good,  if  true,  translation  in  Kobby  Burns'  proverb, 
"  The  best  laid  scheme3  of  mice  an'  men 
Aft  gang  agley." 


CHAPTER  XII. 


Marine  Moralizings — "  El  Cid" — A  Disagreeable  Passage 
—  Gliding  Up  the  Narrows — A  Good  Samaritan — New  York 
- — Aboard  the   Cars — Secesh  Sympathizers — Elmira. 

The  man  who  first  invented  going  to  sea  was  hostis  huma- 
ni  generis,  a  super-eminent  donkey,  and  should  have  been 
outlawed  accordingly.  The  element  is  proverbially  treacher- 
ous, the  dangers  are  great,  the  inconveniences  infinite,  the 
results  moonshine,  and  to  crown  all,  beneficent  Nature  has 
implanted  in  every  human  stomach  an  instinctive  and  vigor- 
ous protest  against  the  practice,  which  ought  to  satisfy  any 
reasonable  being,  that  it  never  was  designed  that  a  creature 
innocent  of  fins,  tail  or  a  shell,  should  go  out  of  sight  of  land. 
I  admit,  that  the  whale  oil  supply  was  for  a  long  time  an  ob- 
stacle to  the  general  acceptance  of  my  view  of  the  case,  but 
the  vast  fields  of  petroleum  recently  discovered,  knocks  the 
wind  out  of  that  argument  and  allows  me  to  indulge  the  rea- 


FIVE    MONTHS  AMONG  THE   YANKEES.  71 

sonable  hope,  that  before  "  my  eyes  turn  to  behold  for  the  last 
time  the  sun  in  heaven,"  I  shall  have  the  satisfaction  of 
participating,  in  a  general  auction  of  all  marine  properties," 
"  on  account  of  whom  it  may  concern."' 

The  fact  is,  there  is  nothing  redeeming  about  the  infernal 
sea-going  system.  You  get  up  in  the  morning  and  there  is  no 
newspaper  ;  you  stroll  out  to  settle  your  bitter.-;  and  a  dozen 
paces  in  any  direction  will  introduce  you  to  a  shark;  }tou 
stagger  in  to  breakfast,  and  the  coffee  slides  into  your  beef 
steak,  and  both  into  your  lap  ;  you  get  up,  and  in  ten  min- 
utes you  discover  in  the  language  of  the  luckless  yellow-plush, 
"  wot  tin  basins  was  made  for  ;  "  the  day  passes  and  there  is 
no  post  office,  no  business,  no  counting  room,  no  children  run 
over,  no  street  cries,  no  omnibus,  no  dog  fight,  no  civiliza- 
tion, it  snows  and  you  cant  go  sleighing,  it  is  fair  and  you 
cant  take  a  drive,  it  rains  and  you  cant  roll  ten-pins,  or  get 
satisfactorily  drunk  ;  pale  spectres  with  pendant  jaws  and 
watery  eyes,  all  by  a  strange  centrifugal  force,  flying  towards 
the  outside  of  the  ship,  pass  you  at  every  instant,  and  after  a 
day  dismally  dragged  through  in  every  conceivable  discom- 
fort, you  turn  in  at  night  to  a  closet  not  large  enough  to  swing 
a  cat  in,  and  tumble  into  a  berth  which  looks  so  much  like  a 
coffin,  that  you  dream  before  }rou  are  well  asleep  of  attending 
your  own  funeral ! 

So  your  days  creep  along,  if  you  have  vitality  enough  to 
survive,  destitute  of  fox  hunts  or  flirtations,  law  or  literature, 
politics  or  opera,  fashion  plates  or  scandal,  telegrams  or  taxes, 
and  if  the  old  scythe-bearer  comes  to  your  relief,  you  are 
sewed  up  in  a  sack  with  a  thirty-two  pound  shot  at  your  heels, 
and  tossed  to  the  fishes  as  remorselessly  as  the  beef  bones 
from  yesterday's  soup  ! 

Gonzalo  was  a  very  Solomon:  "Now,"  he  cries,  and  I 
whenever  aboard  ship,  with  him, 

"Now  would  I  give  a  thousand  furlongs  of  sea  for  an  acre  of  barren 
ground  :  long  heath,  brown  furze,  anything  :  the  wills  above  be  done, 
but  I  would  fain  die  a  dry  death." 


72  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

All  these  objections  are  sound  and  unexaggerated,  if  you 
are  a  first  class  passenger  aboard  a  first  class  steamer. 
"  Phancy  our  feelinx,"  then  when  you  remember  that  we  were 
packed  like  sheep  on  a  cattle  train,  in  the  hold  of  a  villainous 
tub  in  the  middle  of  July,  with  no  ventilation,  except  what 
was  afforded  by  two  narrow  hatchways,  (there  being  no  side 
lights,)  and  permission  to  put  our  heads  above  the  deck  be- 
ing only  accorded  to  two  at  a  time,  and  then  for  five  minutes, 
so  that  it  required  one  hundred  and  fity  times  five  minutes, 
or  over  half  the  day  to  elapse  before  you  could  get  your 
second  gasp  of  fresh  air  !  And  then  our  ship  was  'such  a 
crazy  and  unseaworthy  craft,  that  in  the  event  of  a  storm, 
there  was  little  prospect  of  our  ever  seeing  land  again  ex- 
cept on  the  hypothesis  of  Pisanio  that 

"  Fortune  brings  in  some  beats  that  are  not  steered." 

In  this  delightful  situation,  the  sun  melting  the  pitch  in  the 
seams  over  our  heads,  and  not  air  enough  stirring  to  raise  a 
ripple, we  stretched  ourselves  on  the  lower  deck  in  a  desper- 
ate state  of  disgust,  with  only  energy  enough  to  pray  for  a 
short  passage  or  a  heavy  gale — blessings  craved  in  vain.  Any- 
thing short  of  a  wheel-barrow  ought  to  make  the  run  from 
Point  Lookout  to  New  York — our  destination — in  thirty 
hours  or  thirty-five  at  the  most ;  it  took  us  just  forty-six,  al- 
though the  sea  was  as  calm  as  a  river,  nothing  breaking  the 
smoothness  of  its  treacherous  surface,  except  that  infernal 
stomach-pump  contrivance,  known  as  the  "ground  swell," — 
a  submarine  wave  which  constantly  beats  from  the  shore, 
and  was  intended  by  beneficent  nature  to  prevent  her  chil- 
dren from  the  folly  of  navigation,  by  circling  the  whole  ocean 
with  this  (unheeded)  warning  against  leaving  land.  From 
10  a.  m.,  Saturday  the  9th,  until  we  arrived  in  New  York 
harbor,  a  period  of  over  fifty  hours,  our  only  food  was  one 
ration  of  bread  and  a  small  piece  of  fat  pork,  and  what  with 
this  and  a  slight  dose  of  sea-sickness,  I  was  consummately  mis. 
erable  by  the  time  we  got  into  "  the  Narrows  "  early  Monday 
morning.  I  stole  up  on  deck,  and  hunting  up  the  officer 
commanding  the  guard,  asked  permission  to  purchase  a  cup 


FIVE    MONTHS   AMONG   Till*:   YANKEES.  7o 

of  coffee  from  the  cook,  and  leave  also  to  remain  on  deck  till 
I  could  drink  it.  lie  assented  readily,  and  having  made  the 
contract  with  the  presiding  genius  of  the  galley,  I  took  my 
seat  on  a  "'bit"'  forward,  and  drank  my  fill  of  the  beautiful 
scene  around  me.  Those  who  have  entered  New  York  har- 
bor by  this  channel — and  what  southron  has  not,  in  those 
days  when  Gotham  was  our  Ostium  and  Piraeus  ? — will  remem- 
ber the  ;  and  luxury  of  the  Jei  coast  for  thirty 
miles  below  the  city.  The  land  is  high,  ;  idy  wooded, 
and  almost  every  summit  is  crowned  with  a  stylish  country 
villa — the  urban  residences  of  the  princes  of  Wad  street  and 
Broadway,  while  in  every  re;  where  a  surf  breaks, 
a  handsome  hotel  fronts  the  sea,  and  rows. of  piquant  little 
cottages  dot  the  hill  slopes  to  their  tops.  A  approach 
the  city,  these  evidences  of  wealth  and  taste  increase  in  num- 
ber and  in  magnificence,  and  you  are  ushered  into  the  teeming- 
port  of  the  American  Venice,  through  a  highway  of  palaces, 
with  here  and  there  a  powerful  fortress  interspersed,  to  give 
security  to  all  this  rural  luxury  and  elegance. 

I  was  musing  on  all  this,  indulging  my  taste  for  the  beauti- 
ful, but  amazingly  hungry  and  uncomfortable  withal,  when  a 
Yankee  corporal,  a  German  Jew,  named  Bernstein,  as  I  aft 
wards  learned,  came  to  where  I  sat,  with  a  smoking  cup  of 
coffee  in  his  hand,  his  own  ration  for  breakfast,  and  with  a 
courteous  apology  for  having  nothing  better  to  offer,  insisted 
on  my  drinking  it.  It  was  idle  to  tell  him  that  I  had  engaged 
to  get  some  from  the  cook,  for  he  replied,  that  the  cook  might 
not  have  it  t<>  give  me,  and  on  my  objecting  that  he  would 
lose  his  own  I  I  me  that  he  could  get  another 

cup,  and  would  be  offended  if  I  did  not  take  it.  So  1  accepted 
it  very  gratefully.  Not  ad  the  sherbets  that  ever  Persian 
poets  sung,  not  Byron*.-  pern  >rable  thimble-full  of  essence  fro- 
zen out  of  a  bottle  of  champ  it  "  Lachryma  Christf," 
beloved  of  Sue,  not  Perkins-  "best  pale"  to  a  Briton,  nor 
Schwartz's  imperial  '"  lager  "  to  a  Bavarian,  nor  poteen  to  a 
"Wexford  man,  nor  usquebaugh  to  a  Highlander,  nor  train-oil  to 
a  Laplander,  nor  spermaceti  caudles  to  the  late  Czar,  eouhl 
10 


74  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

have  matched  in  refreshment  that  half  pint  of  black  coffee  to* 
me. 

"  I  grset  it  now,  I  gulped  it  then." 

There  is  no  likelihood  that  these  lines  "will  ever  meet  Lis  eye, 
hut  I  could  wish  that  such  might  be  their  fate,  that  my  friend 
Bernstein  might  see  that  his  little  act  of  kindness  is  not  and 
will  not  be  forgotten.  Before  I  had  finished,  he  hunted  ap  his 
haversack  and  laid  before  me  as  many  "  hard  tacks  "  as  I  could 
eat,  so  that  when,  a  half  an  hour  afterwards,  the  cook  told  me 
he  had  a  breakfast  for  me,  I  was  able  to  administer  alimentary 
consolation  to  a  co-pie  of  hungry  "rcbs"  below. 

It  was  near  mid-clay  when  we  hauled  up  in  the  channel  just 
off  and  below  the  Jersey  city  end  of  the  lower  ferry  to  New 
York,  and  there  we  lay  till  the  train  on  the  Erie  railroad,  whoso 
eastern  terminus  is  here,  was  ready.  I  am  quite  familiar  with 
New  York  harbor,  and  many  a  spire  of  the  city  was  as  easily 
recognized  as  that  of  my  Virginia  home.  Everything  seemed  as 
husy,  as  "alive,"  as  stirring,  as  in  the  same  month,  four  years 
before,  when  I  last  saw  the  gay  city.  The  war  was  apparently 
little  felt  here.  The  docks  were  as  crowded,  the  same  unvarying 
hu.a  filled  the  sultry  air,  the  ferry  boats  passed  with  the  same 
surcharged  loads,  the  wharves  were  crowded  with  the  same  rush- 
ing hordes  of  porters,  hackmen,  stevedores,  news-boys  and 
thieves,  and  I  doubt  not  Broadway  echoed  to  the  same  endless 
tide  of  wheel  and  foot,  and  Wall  street  choked  its  crooked  throat 
with  as  excited  and  thronging  a  congregation  as  have  ever 
"bulled  and  beared"  it  in  the  shadow  of  old  Trinity,  on  any  July 
day  this  quarter  of  a  century  past.  In  the  face  of  all  this 
wealth,  development,  material,  power — all  these  vast  appliances 
of  conquest,  I  felt  a  new  pride  in  our  beleaguered  Confederacy, 
which  has  had  nothing  to  oppose  to  this  unexampled  afiiuence 
of  resource  except  the  unconquerable  gallantry  of  her  children, 
and  yet  has  fought  this  fight  against  such  odds  as  have  never 
yet  stood  in  the  way  of  Freedom,  with  a  calm  confidence  in  the 
cause,  a  noble  acceptance  of  sacrifice,  an  undaunted  courage,  a 
patient  hope,  a  chivalric  devotion,  that  fearlessly  challenge  the 
comparisons  of  history. 


FIVS   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  75 

A  little  boat  is  shooting  out  from  shore,  and  in  a  moment  more 
an  officer  boards  us,  who  probably  brings  news  that  the  train  is 
now  waiting,  for  our  "tub"  is  now  turned  towards  the  dock.  We 
arc  soon  along  side,  an  officer  stands  at  the  hatchway  to  count  us 
as  we  come  up,  lest  some  may  conceal  themselves  in  the  ship. 
The  count  seems  satisfactory,  for  we  are  marched  into  the  depot, 
a  few  paces  off,  and  put  aboard  a  train  of  box  and  passenger 
cars,  standing  ready  for  us. 

Our  advent  is  unexpected,  or  the  Jerseyans  arc  not  as  curious 
as  their  compatriots  elsewhere,  for  there  is  but  a  small  crowd  of 
spectators,  and  these  gaze  on  us  with  a  stolid  air,  which  may 
mean  pympathy;  probably,  however,  indifference.  By  half  past 
one  all  was  in  readiness,  the  locomotive  gave  that  preliminary 
shriek,  which,  according  to  Sydney  Smith,  is  most  like  the 
am  an  attorney  may  be  expected  to  give  when  the  devil  gets 
hold  of  him,  and  off  we  started  for  Elmira. 

The  Erie  railroad,  as  I  presume,  every  one  used  to  know,  runs 
through  the  northern  counties  of  New  Jersey,  and  the  southern 
count;es  of  central  and  western  New  York.  It  passes  through 
some  handsome  towns  and  cities,  but  the  country  is  considered 
far  inferior  to  that  which  lines  the  Central  road.  At  almost 
every  station,  we  made  a  lengthy  halt,  to  give  way  to  some  regu- 
lar train  passing  up  or  down,  and,  wherever  we  stopped,  we  were 
the  subjects  of  very  great,  and.  generally,  respectful  interest. 
The  guards  rigidly  excluded  the  people  from  all  intercourse  with 
us,  and  forbade,  under  various  sanguinary  threats,  any  assistance 
being  tendered  us,  still  they  found  it  impossible  to  guard  every 
avenue  of  approach,  and  many  apiece  of  tobacco,  package  of 
Iters,  and  the  like,  was  handed  us  by  the  good  people  on  the 
route.  The  gentler  sex  was  conspicuous  in  these  charities,  and 
more  than  once  surprised  us  by  furtive  exhibitions  of  little  Con- 
federate flags  which  they  had  concealed  about  their  persons. 
me  point,  there  seemed  to  be  a  fair  prospect  of  a  difficulty 
between  our  guards,  and  the  citizens,  many  of  whom  persisted, 
despite  all  orders,  in  making  such  contributions  to  our  wan; 
accidentally  lay  in  their  power.  Of  course,  these  agreeable  in- 
cidents were  occasionally  diversified  by  the  insults  of  some  sleek 


70  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

non-combatant,  whose  valiant  soul  found  congenial  occupation  in 
fearful  threats  of  our  indiscriminate  massacre,  if  he  could  only 
lay  hands  on  us.  These  gentry  were,  in  the  main,  of  that  phy- 
sical and  sartorial  type  which  we  always  associate  with  the  idea 
of  extreme  orthodoxy — your  sanctimonious,  high-seat-in-the-sy. 
nagogue  worthies,  who 

"  Compound  for  sins  they  are  inclined  to, 
By  daninicg  those  they  have  no  mind  to," 

and  from  the  serene  heights  of  their  suhlime  self-conceit,  hurl 
worse  anathemas  than  thai  jirolix  profanity  of  bishop  Ernulphus, 
at  the  forlorn  publicans  below.  You  know  the  canting  breed, 
good  reader  mine,  wherever  you  see  them,  and  at  home  or 
abroad,  in  pulpit  or  tribune,  in  church  or  'state,  they  everywhere 
exhibit  the  same  harmonious  blending  of  Heap's  hypocricy  with 
the  villainy  of  Carker.  Of  these  lovely  lambs,  Butler  is  the  god 
and  Kalloch  the  prophet.  He  would  be  a  most  unreasonable 
"reV  win  would  look  for  anything  but  a  snarl  from  these  curs. 
And  thus,  amid  friends  and  foes,  through  gorges  and  around 
bluffs,  now  skimming  gaily  along  a  level  meadow,  and  anon 
"wiring  in  and  wiring  out,"  apparently  in  the  absurd  effort  to 
avoid  crossing  the  Susquehannah — a  stream  so  crooked  that  the 
engineers  who  built  the  road  seem  to  have  fancied,  that,  by  fol- 

to  •  ** 

lowing  up  one  bank,  they  would,  sooner  or  later,  find  themselves 
on  the  other — on  we  steamed  till  about  8  o'clock,  Tuesday  morn- 
ing, when  we  pulled  up  in  the  pretty  little  c'ty  of  Elmira,  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Chemung,  and,  although  about  to  enter  our  pri- 
son, a  much  happier  party  than  when  we  left  "El  Cid."  This 
beino-  the  last  time  I  shall  have  occasion  to  mention  this  miracu- 
lous sample  of  naval  architecture,  I  here  deliberately  devote  it 
to  the  infernal  gods,  with  as  honest  an  unction  as  ever  filled  the 
bosom  of  the  most  patriotic  Moor,  in  the  times  of  its  great  name- 

sajce a  o-ent'eman  who  must  have  served  Moorish  mothers  with 

impracticable  cherubs  a  good  turn — he  frightened  the  grown 
ones  so  prodigiously,  according  to  the  authentic  histories  of  Bob 
Southey,  and  that  unfortunate  victim  of  a  liver  complant,  and 
an  uncongenial  spouse,  Mrs.  Hemans. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Statistics — Formation  of  a  Prison  Camp  at  Elmira — Our 
Entrance — Arrangement  of  T/ie  Pen — Major  Henry  V.  Colt — 
Clerical  and  Executive  Officers — A  Precious  Trio — Number  of 
Prisoners. 

I  plainly  foresee  that  this  chapter  is  going  to  run  into  sta- 
tistics, and  as  I  have  had  a  reasonable  horror  of  mathematics 
from  the  blessed  days  when  my  nose  had  to  be  held  whenever 
the  medicine  chest  required  depletion,  and  every  application 
of  my  mind  to  figures  was  followed  by  the  application  to  my 
shoulders  of  something  else,  I  will  be  excused  for  invoking 
the  patience  of  the  reader,  assuring  him — a  favorite  lie  with 
flagellatory  parents  while  "  horsing  "  their  heirs — that  the  pain 
I  inflict  causes  me  more  suffering  than  it  can  possibly  occasion 
him.. 

For  more  than  a  year  before  our  arrival,  Elmira  was  the  site 
of  the  rendezvous  for  the  drafted  men  of  western  Nov/  York. 
Here  the  gushing  patriots  were  received  and  housed,  trained 
to  turn  out  their  toes  and  survive  "hard  tack,"  and  otherwise 
qualified  to  patch  the  rents  in  a  certain  lacerated  Anaconda, 
which  has  been  prowling  around  the  cotton  and  tobacco  coun- 
try with  varying  fortunes  these  four  years  back.  These  gay 
volunteers  required  three  camps,  which  were  severally  deno- 
minated "barracks"  1, 2  and  3,  and  here  they  were  kept  till  they 
graduated  in  the  manual  of  arm-;,  and  squandered  their  bounty 
money,  when  they  were  incontinently  bundled  off  to  the  front, 
a  performance  which,  according  I  authentic  averments, 

resulted  in  the  absconding  of  i  it.  of  the  patriots 

before  they  ever  came  in  sight  of  a  camp  sample  of  '•  the  old 
flag." 

Now  it  came  to  bat   Mr.  Stanton  began  to  feel  some 

apprehension  that  the  "  j  numerous  at 


78  PRISONER   OF  WAR., 

Point  Lookout,  and  offered  too  tempting  a  prize  to  the  profane 
general,  then  menacing  the  sour-krout  and  smear-case  (?)  of  the 
honest  Deutschers  in  rural  Pennsylvania,  so  he  ordained*  and 
established  by  imperial  ukase  a  prison  in  the  hyperborean  re- 
gions of  New  York,  where  for  at  least  four  months  of  every 
year,  anything  short  of  a  polar-bear  would  find  locomotion  im- 
practicable, and  where,  therefore,  no  apprehension  need  be 
be  felt  of  trouble  within,  or  assault  without,  for  the  same  inter- 
val. Early  in  July,  therefore,  the  "  Yanks "  were  ousted 
from  Barrcks  No.  3,  and  preparations  made  for  receiving  the 
first  instalment  of  prisoners,  who  arrived  on  the  6th  of  July, 
numbering  three  hundred  and  ninety-nine,  the  four  hundreth 
man  having  escaped  on  the  way.  On  the  11th,  two  hundred 
and  forty-nine  arrived,  and  the  next  day  we  were  added  to  the 
list. 

We  were  escorted  to  the  "  pen,"  by  a  large  concourse  of 
admiring  citizens,  a  number  of  whom  were  of  the  gentler  sex, 
in  every  stage  of  development,  curiosity  being  in  Eimira,  a 
failing  of  the  sex.  A  march  of  about  a  mile,  brought  us  to 
our  prison.  We  filed  in,  were  counted,  divided  into  compan- 
ies of  a  hundred,  the  roil  called,  and  we  were  led  off  to  our 
quarters.  These  consisted  of  wooden  buildings,  about  one 
hundred  feet  long,  bj^  sixteen  in  width,  and  high  enough  for 
two  rows  of  bunks.  There  were  about  thirty-five  of  these 
buildings  in  the  enclosure,  standing  side  by  side,  in  a  line 
parallel  to  the  front  of  the  pen,  and  about  mid  way  the  ground. 
I  soon  asserted  a  preemption  claim  to  a  top  bunk,  and  having 
deposited  my  very  modest  "  pack,"  started  out  to  view  my 
premises. 

I  found  a  level  plain  of  about  thirty  acres  of  land,  situated 
as  I  have  said,  a  mile  or  so  west  of  Eimira,  and  immediately 
on  the  bank  of  the  Chemung.  The  ground  is  unequally 
divided  hy  a  long  narrow  lake  or  lagoon,  which  runs  parallel 
to  the  river,  into  two  sections,  the  one  farthest  from  the  en- 
*  trance  gate,  being  denominated  the  Trans-Mississippi  Depart- 
ment, in  the  vernacular  cf  camp.  This  lake  starts  within 
twenty  feet  of  the  fence  on  one  side  of  the  pen,  and  flows  un- 


FIVE   MONTHS  AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  79 

der  the  opposite  fence,  and  the  ground  beyond  the  lake  is  a 
sandy[bottom,  indicating  what  I  found  on  enquiry  to  be  the 
case,  that  the  unruly  Chemung  occasionally  gets  uproarious, 
overflows  its  banks  and  floods  the  adjacent  grounds. 

The  whole  site  is  a  basin  surrounded  by  hills  which  rise 
several  hundred  feet,  and  are  covered  richly  and  thiokly  with 
the  luxurious  foliage  of  the  hemlock,  ash,  poplar,  and  pine. 
This  was  the  most  grateful  relief  from  our  Point  Lookout  ex- 
perience, where  nothing  met  the  eve,  in  any  direction  ex- 
cept the  sky,  water,  and  prison  fence.  But  a  more  available 
and  practical  improvement  was  in  the  Water,  which  was  here 
pure,  cool,  and  abundant,  and  the  new  comers  luxuriated  in 
the  delicious  beverage  with  the  gusto  of  a  lost  traveller  in 
Sahara,  or  a  repentant  legislator  after  a  nocturnal  spree. 

In  the  general  arrangement  ol'  the  guard  detail  there  was 
little  difference  from  Point  Lookout,  in  the  absence  of 

the  colored  guards,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  officers,  all  of 
whom  spent  a  poi  each  day  within  the  "pen."     A  row 

of  tents  running  parallel  with  the  front  fence  of  the  "pen," 
was  assigned  to  these  gentry,  and  until  the  approach  of  win- 
ter drove  them  into  certain  barracks  outside,  where  ventila- 
ting arrangements  were  not  so  extensive,  they  continued  to 
occupy  them. 

Back  of  the  o4  or  3f>  barracks,  already  referred  to,  is  a  row 
of  wooden  buildings,  containing  the  adjutant's  office,  dispensary, 
various  rooms  of  Yankee  sergeants,  store-rooms,  and  the  like, 
and  hack  again  of  these,  the  mess-rooms  and  cook-houses,  which 
extend  to  the  lagoon.  These,  with  one  or  two  other  buildings, 
constituted  all  the  appliances  of  the  prison  at  that  time,  nor  \ 
any  change  made  until  ti  Qa   from  the  lagoon  sowed  the 

seeds  of  febrile  disease  bo  bat  eight  or  ten  hospitals  had 

to  be  built,  and  the  advent  tiers  by  the  thousand,  exhaust- 

ed the  sleeping  a  ks. 

The  government  of  this  o  and  is  still,  in  the  han 

of  Major  Henry     .  j  mtleman 

about  38  years  of  i  and  a  half  feet  high,  with  ailorid  com- 

plexion, a  comfortabl  ;  appear 


80  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

ance  and  manner/  and  a  chronic  attack  of  cigar-smoking.  I 
perform  a  very  grateful  duty  in  liere  bearing  testimony  to  the 
various  admirable  qualities  of  this  gentleman  as  an  officer  and  a 
man.  Uniformly  urbane  and  courteous  in  his  demeanor,  he  dis- 
charged the  varied,  and  often  times  annoying,  offices  of  his  post, 
■with  a  degree  of  justice  to  his  position  and  to  the  men  under  his 
charge,  a  patience,  fidelity  and  humanity,  that  could  not  be  sur- 
passed, and,  I  fancy,  are  seldom  equalled,  either  side  of  the  line, 
in  similar  positions.  There  was  none  of  the  slip-sbod  indiffer- 
ence of  Point  Lookout  regime.  Major  Colt  either  discharged  in 
person,  or  superintended  the  execution  of  every  duty  respecting 
the  prison,  which  appropriately  claimed  his  attention,  doing  all 
with  the  thoroughness  of  a  trained  man  of  business,  and  although 
charged  with  duties,  whose  performance  demanded  almost  every 
moment  of  his  time,  he  was  always  ready  to  hear  and  redress 
any  just  complaints  that  were  made  to  him,  or  to  afford  any  in- 
formation or  assistance,  consistently  with  his  position,  to  the 
humblest  prisoner.  It  is  a  pleasant  office  to  do  this  justice  to 
an  enemy,  and  to  record  'this  offset  to  the  many  cruelties  which 
are  charged,  no  doubt  justly,  to  other  officers  in  charge  of  our 
unfortunate  prisoners. 

The  Major's  adjutant  was  Captain  C.  C.  Barton,  an  active, 
smart,  and  rather  consequential  young  gentleman,  as  adjutants 
are  wont  to  be — and  here  I  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  these 
officers  constitute  a  class,  sui  generis,  in  every  army — but,  upon 
the  whole,  Barton  was  a  good  fellow,  notwithstanding  he  consi- 
dered Abe  Lincoln  a  gentleman,  and  accounted  Grant  a  com- 
pound in  about  equal  proportions  of  King  Solomon  and  Alexan- 
der the  Great.  Captain  B.  was  assisted  by  a  young  sergeant 
named  Hopkins,  who  was  promoted  to  an  adjutant's  place  shortly 
after  our  arrival,  but  did  not  exchange  his  comfortable  quarters 
for  "the  front"  till  the  summer  was  over;  and  a  youth,  named 
Frank  Earl'c,  who,  in  a  fit  of  spasmodic  patriotism,  joined  a  heavy 
,  artillery  company,  before  he  was  out  of  his  teens,  and  straight- 
way perilled  his  invaluable  life  for  his  beloved  country,  as  an  ad- 
jutant's clerk,  in  the  dangerous  "Department  of  the  Chemung." 

In  the  executive  duties  of  his  office,  Major  Colt  was  assisted 


FIVE  MONTHS  AMONG  THE  YANKEES.  81 

by  fifteen  or  twenty  officers,  and  as  many  npn-commissioned 
officers,  chiefly  of  the  militia  or  the  veteran  reserves.  Among 
them  were  some  characters  which  are  worth  a  paragraph. 

There  w&S  a  long  nosed,  long-faced,  long-jawed,  long-bearded 
long-bodied,  long-legged,  endless-footed,  and  long-skirted   curi- 
osity, yclept  Captain  Peck,  ostensibly  engaged  in  taking  charge 
of  certain  compani  ."'  bin  really  employed  in  turning 

a  penny  by  hucksl  the  >  arious  products  of  prisoners'  skill — 

an  occupation  very  profitable  to  Peck,  but  generally  unsatisfac- 
tory, in  a  pecuniary  way,  to  the  "rebs."  Many  of  them  have 
told  me  of  the  impossibility  of  getting  their  just  dues  from  the 
prying,  round-shouldered  i  who  had  a  snarl  and  an  oath 

for  every  one  out  of  whom  he  was  not,  at  that  instant,  making 
money,  and  exhibi  lerally  the  characteristics  of  a  lung  an- 

cestry of  Connecticut  clock  peddlers,  lie  diversified  his  specu- 
lations in  cheap  jewelry,  by  attentions  to  a  handsome  mare,  of 
which  he  seemed  quite  proud,  and  who  was  far  the.noblcr  animal 
1  suspect. 

Another  rarity  of  the  "  pen.  "  was  one  Lieut.  Jno.  McConnell,  a 
"braw  chiel,"  who  had  eclipsed  fiction  in  his  noble  deeds  while 
hi  the  field,  and  whose  bile  was  so  grievously  stirred  up  against 
the  rebels  that  he  could  not  keep  his  tongue  or  hands  from  them 
even  here.  lie  had  an  oath  and  a  drawn  pistol  on  every  occa- 
.  and  would  iiy  into  a  passion  over  the  merest  nothing,  that 
■would  have  been  exceedingly  amusing,  but  for  a  wicked  habit  he 
h;:d  <>f  laving  about  him  with  a  stick,  a  tent  pole — anything  that 
fell  into  his  hands.  He  was  opening  a  trench  one  day,  through 
the  camp,  when,  for  the  crime  of  stepping  across  it,  he  forced  a 
poor,  sick  boy,  who  was  en  his  way  to  the  dispensary  for  medi- 
cinei  to  leap  backwards  and  forwards  over  it  till  he  fell  from  ex- 
haustion amid  the  voluble  oaths  of.  the  valiant  lieutenant.  One 
lieutenant  Richmond  kept  McC.  in  countenance  by  following 
closely  his  example.  He  is  a  little  compound  of  fice  and  weasel, 
and  having  charge  of  the  cleaning  up  of  the  camp,  has  abundant 
opportunities  to  bully  and  insult,  but  being,  fortunately,  very  far 
short  of  grcn  s  not  use  his  boot  or  fist  as  freely 

as  his  great  exemplar,  who  is  never  idle.     No  one,  however,  was 

11 


82  .  PRISONER   OY   WAR. 

safe  from  either  of  them,  who,  however  accidentally  and  inno- 
cently, fell  in  their  way,  physically  or  metaphorically. 

Of  the  same  block  Captain  Bowden  was  a  chip  :  a  fair-haired, 
light-moustached  Saxon-faced  "Yank" — far  the  worst  type  of 
man,  let  me  tell  you,  yet  discovered — whose  whole  intercourse 
with  the  prisoners  was  the  essence  of  brutality.  An  illustration 
Avil  1  paint  him  more  thoroughly  than  a  philippic.  A  prisoner  , 
named  Hale,  belonging  to  the  old  Stonewall  brigade,  was  disco 
vered  one  day  rather,  less  sober  than  was  allowable  to  any  but 
the  loyal,  and  Bowden  being  officer  of  the  guard,  arrested  him 
and  demanded  where  he  got  his  liquor.  This  he  refused  to  tell, 
as  it  would  compromise  others,  and  any  one  but  a  Yankee  would 
have  put  him  in  the  guard  house,  compelled  him  to  wear  a  bar- 
rel shirt,  or  inflicted  some  punishment  ■proportionate  to  his  offence* 
All  this  would  have  been  very  natural,  but  not  Bowdenish,  so 
this  valorous  Parolles  determined  to  apply  the  torture  to  force  a 
confession !  Hale,  was  accordingly  tied  up  by  the  thumbs,  that  is, 
his  thumbs  were  fastened  seearely  together  behind  his  back,  and 
a  rope  being  attached  to  the  cord  uniting  them,  it  Avas  passed 
over  a  cross  bar  over  his  head  and  hauled  down  until  it  raised 
the  sufferer  so  nearly  off  the  ground  that  the  entire  weight  of  his 
body  was  sustained  by  his  thumbs,  strained  in  an  unnatural  posi- 
tion, his  toes  merely  touching  the  ground.  The  torture  of  this 
at  the  wrists  and  shoulder  joints  is  exquisite,  but  Hale  persisted 
in  refusing,  and  called  on  his  fellow-prisoners,  many  of  whom 
were  witnesses  of  this  refined  villainy,  to  remember  this  when 
they  get  home.  Bowden  grew  exasperated  at  his  victim's  forti- 
tude, and  determined  to  gag  him.  This  he  essayed  to  accom- 
plish by  fastening  a  heavy  oak  tent-pin  in  his  mouth,  and  when 
he  would  not  open  his  mouth  sufficiently — not  an  easy  operation — 
he  struck  him  in  the  face  with  the  oaken  billet,  a  blow  which 
broke  several  of  his  teeth  and  covered  his  mouth  with  blood  I 

On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  officers  were  as  humane  and 
merciful  as  these  wretches  were  brutal  and  cowardly,  and  all 
who  were  my  fellow-prisoners,  will  recall,  with  grateful  remem- 
brance, Captain  Benj.  Munger,  Lieutenant  Dalgleish,  Sergeant- 
major  Rudd,  Lieutenant  McKcc,  Lieutenant  Haggerty,  commigsa- 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  83 

ry  of  one  of  the  regiments  guarding  us,  a  •whole-souled  fellow, 
and  one  or  two  oth 

These  officers  were  assigned  in  the  proportion  of  one  to  every 
company  at  first,  but  to  every  three-hundred  or  four-hundred 
men  afterwards,  and  were  ehUrged  with  the  duty  of  superintend- 
ing roll-calls,  inspecting  quarters,  and  seeing  that  the  men  under 
their  charge  got  their  rations,  and  the  system  "was  excellent. 

During  the  month  of  July,  4,323  prisoners  were  entered  on  tho 
records  of  Elmira  prison,  and  by  the  29th  of  August,  the  date  of 
the  last  arrivals,  9,607. 

The  barrack  accommodations  did  not  suffice  for  quite  half  of 
them,  and  the  remainder  were  provided  "with  "A"  tents,  in  which 
they  continued  to  be  housed  when  I  left  the  prison  in  tho  middle 
of  the  following  October,  although  the  weather  waa  piercingly 
cold.     Tim:';  :  9   they  came   from  a   summer's   campaign, 

many  of  them  without  blankets,  and  without  even  a  handful  of 
straw  between  them  and  the  frozen  earth,  it  will  surprise  no  one 
that  the  suffering,  even  at  that  early  day,  was  considerable. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

I  •'   'Doctor — Pride   of   Consistency — General 

I  Arrangements — Commissariat  —  The    Nations  and  the 
Rats — Punishma.    .' 

I    have  spoken  of  the  military   govermont   of  Elmira 

Frison,  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  pursue    the  statistical 

.'•.  now  that  I  am  in  it,  by  a  brief  chapter  on  the  Medical 

and  Con  I  resume  the  thread  of 

the  mor  '  my  narrative. 

£aj<  »r  B.  L.   Sanger,  a 
gentleman  who  appeared  very   faithful,  though  not  quite  as 


84  PRISONER   OF    WAR. 

industrious  as  the  needs  of  such  a  post  would  seem  to  demand, 
in  the  discharge  of  the  supervisory  duties,  especially  falling 
under  his  charge.  He  was  assisted  by  Dr.  Eider,  of  Roches- 
ter, one  of  the  few  "  Copperheads,"  whom  I  met  in  any  office, 
great  or  small  at  the  ISTorth.  My  association  was  rather  more 
intimate  with  him  than  with  any  of  the  others,  and  I  believe  him 
to  have  been?  competent  and  faithful  officer.  Personally  I  ac- 
knowledge his  many  kindnesses  with  gratitude.  The  rest  of 
the  '.'  meds  "  were  in  truth,  a  motly  crew  in  the  main,  most  of 
them  being  selected  from  the  impossibility,  it  would  seem,  of 
doing  anything  else  with  them.  I  remember  one  of  the  worth- 
ies, whose  miraculous  length  of  leg  and.  neck,  suggested 
"crane"  to  all  observers,  whose  innocence  of  medicine  was 
quite  refreshing.  On  being  scut  for  to  prescribe  for  a  prison- 
er, who  was  said  to  have  bilious  fever,  he  asked  the  druggist, 
a  "reb,"  in  the  most  naive  manner,  what  was  the  usual  treat- 
ment for  that  disease  !  Fortunately,  during  his  stay  at  Blmi-. 
ra,  which  was  not  long,  there  were  no  drugs  in  the  Dispensa- 
ry, or  I  shudder  to  picture  the  consequences.  This  depart- 
ment was  constantly  undergoing  changes,  and  I  suspect  that 
the  whole  system  was  intended  as  part  oi  the  education  of  the 
young  doctors  assigned  to  us,  for  as  soon  as  they  learned  to 
distinguish  between  quinine  and  magnesia  they  were  removed 
to  another  field  of  labor. 

The  whole  camp  was  divided  into  wards,  to  which  physi- 
cians were  assigned,  among  whom  were  three  "  rebel  "  pris- 
oners, Dr.  Lynch  of  Baltimore,  Dr.  Martin  of  South  Carolina, 
Dr.  Graham,  formerly  of  Stqnewall  Jackson's  Staff,  and  a  fel- 
low townsman  of  the  lamented  hero.  These  ward  physicians 
treated  the  simplest  cases  in  their  patient's  Barrack,  and  trans- 
ferred the  more  dangerous  ones  to  the  Ilopitals,  of  which 
there  were  ten  or  twelve,  capable  of  accommodating  about 
eighty  patients  each.  Here  every  arrangement  was  made  that 
carpenters  could  make,  to  insure  the  patients  against  unneces- 
sary mortality,  and  indeed  a  system  was  professed,  which 
would  have  delighted  the  heart  of  a  Sister  of  Charity,  but,  ' 
alas,  the  practice    was  quite  another  thing.     The   most  scan- 


FIVE    MONTHS    AMONG   THE    YANKEES.  85 

dalous  neglect  prevailed  even  in  so  simple  a  matter  as  provi- 
ding food  for  the  sick,  and  I  do  not  doubt  that  many  of  those 
who  died,  perished  from  actual  starvation.  Sometimes  the 
fault  would  be,  that  a  lazy  doctor  would  not  make  out  his 
provision  return  in  time,  in  which  case  his  whole  ward  must 
go  without  food,  or  with  an  inadequate  supply  till  the  next 
day.  Another  time  there  would  be  a  difficulty  between  the 
Chief  Surgeon  and  the  Commissary,  whose  general  relations 
were  of  the  stripe  characterized  by  S.  P.  Andrews,  as  "  cat- 
nnd-dogamy,"  which  would  result  in  the  latter  refusing  to 
furnish  the  former  with  bread  for  the  sick  !  In  almost  a'll 
cases  the  " spiritus  frumenti"  failed  to  get  to  the  patients,  or 
in  so  small  a  quantity  after  the  various  tolls,  that  it  would  not 
quicken  the  circulation  of  a  canary.  Another  trouble  was,  the 
inexcusable  deficiency  of  drugs.  During  several  weeks  in 
which  Dysentery  and  Inflammation  of  the  Bowels  were  the 
prevalent  diseases  in  prison,  there  was  not  a  grain  of  any  pre- 
paration of  opium  in  the  Dispensary,  and  many  a  poor  fellow 
died  for  the  want  of  a  common  medicine,  which  no  family 
is  ordinarily  without — that  is  if  men  ever  die  for  want  of 
drugs. 

There  would  be  and  is  much  excuse  for  such  deficiencies  in 
the  South,  and  this  is  a  matter,  which  the  Yankees  stud iously 
ignore — inasmuch  as  the  blockade  renders  it  impossible  to  pro- 
cure any  luxuries   even   for  our  own  sick,  and  curtails  and 

enormously  expensive  the  supply  of  drugs,  of  the 
simplest,  kind,  providing  they  arc  exotics;  but  in  a  nation 
whose  boast^it  is  that  they  do  not  feel  the  war,  with  the  world 
open  to  them,  and  supplies  of  all  onderfully  abuudant, 

it  is  simply  infamous  to  starve  the  y  did  there,  and 

equally  disc]  leny  them  medicines — indispensable, 

accordii:  i  traditions.     The  result  of  the  igno- 

;e  of  the  doc  parseness  of  these  supplies, 

was  soon  apparent  in  the  sh  mortality  of  tins  camp, 

ling  the  healthfulness  claimed   for  the  situation. 
This  exceeded,  even  the  reported  m  »rtality  of  Andersonville, 

that  was.  rmd  disgraceful  as  it  was  to  ourgovernment 


86  .  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

and  to  civilization,  if  it  resulted  from  causes  within  the  con- 
trol of  our  authorities.  A  published  report  made  to  Lincoln, 
by  four  returned  Andersonville  prisoners  alleged,  that  out  of 
a  population  of  about  36,000  at  that  pen,  six  thousand  or  one 
sixth  of  the  whole,  died  between  the  1st  of  February  and  the 
.1st  of  August,  1864.  Now  at  Elmira,  the  quota  was  not 
made  up  till  the  last  of  August,  so  that  September  was  the 
first  month  during  which  any  just  proportion  could  be  taken, 
and  out  of  less  than  9,500  prisoners  there  at  that  time,  386 
died  during  that  month.  The  same  rate  of  mortality  for  six 
months,  would  give  2316  or  nearly  one  fourth  of  the  whole.  A 
deduction  must  be  made,  arising  from  the  fact,  that  as  the 
whole  number  decreased  by  deaths,  so  the  deaths  might  be 
expected  to  decrease,  but  making  every  allowance,  the  mor- 
tality will  appear  to  be  as  great  in  this  model  prison  as  in  the 
worst  "pen"  in  the  South,  and  at  Elmira  it  resulted,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  from  causes  that  the  government  could  have 
controlled.  Daring  the  last  six  weeks  of  my  prison  life,  it 
was  my  duty  to  make  out  the  morning  report  of  the  deaths, 
so  I  speak  by  the  card  as  to  these  matters.  And  apropos  of 
this  Death  Eecord,  two  facts  therein  were  quite  remarkable; 
so  much  so  that  I  called  the  attention  of  many  to  them  ;  the 
first  was  the  large  number  of  North  Carolinians  who  died, 
numbering  generally  nearly,  if  not  quite  half  of.  the  whole 
number — a  fact  I  turn  over  to  Mr.  Graclgrind,  "  without  note 
or  comment;"  the  second,  the  entire  absence  of  deaths  from 
intermittent  fever,  or  any  similar  complaint.  Now,  I  knew 
well  that  many  of  the  sick  died  from  this  and  kindred  diseases 
produced  by  the  miasma  of  the  stagnant  lake  in  our  camp,  but 
the  reports  which  I  consolidated  every  morning,  contained  no 
reference  to  them.  I  enquired  at  the  Dispensary,  where  the 
reports  were  first  handed  in  the  cause  of  this  anomaly,  and 
learned  that  Dr.  Sanger  would  sign  no  report,  which. ascribed 
to  any  of  these  diseases,  the  death  of  the  patient !  J!  conclu- 
ded that  he  must  have  committed  himself  to  the  harmlessness 
of  the  lagoon  in  question,  and  determnied  to  preserve  his  con- 
sistency at  the  expense  of  our  lives,  very  much  after  the  fash- 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  87 

ion  of  that  illustrious  oru anient  of  the  profession,  Dr.  San- 
grado,  who  continued  his  warm  water  and  phlebotomy,  mere- 
ly because  he  had  written  a  book  in  praise  of  that  practice, 
although  "  in  six  weeks  ho  made  more  widows  and  orphans 
than  the  siege  of  Troy.'" 

I  could  hardly  help  visiting  on  Dr.  Sanger  the  reproaches 
his  predecessor  received  at  the  hands  of  the  persecuted  peo- 
ple of  Valladolid,  who  "were  son  very  brutal  in  their 
grief,"  and  called  the  Doctor  and  Gil  Bias  no  more  euphonious 
name  than  "ignorant  assassins." 

Any  post  in  the  Medical  Department  in  a  Yankee  prison 
oamp  is  quite  valuable  on  account  of  the  opportunities  of 
plunder  it  affords,  and  many  of  the  virtuous  "mods"  made 
extensive  use  of  their  advantages.  Vast  quantities  of  qui- 
nine were  prescribed  that  were  never  taken — the  price,  eight 
dollars  an  ounce,  tempting  the  cupidity  of  the  physicians  be- 
yond all  resistance,  but  the  grand  speculation  was  in  whisky, 
which   v  died   to  the   Dispensary   in   large  quantities, 

and  could  be  obtained  for  a  consideration  in  any  reasona- 
ble amount  from  a  ^ steward"  who  pervaded  that  establish- 
ment. 

The  Commissary  Department    was  under  the  charge  of  a 
•,  active  ex-bank  officer,  Captain  Gr.  C.  Whiton.     The  ra- 
tion of  bread  was  usually   a  full  pound  per  diem,  forty -live 
barrels  of  flour  being  converted  daily  into  loaves  in  the  bake- 
shop  on  at  ration,  on  the  other  hand, 

was   invariably  scanty,  and   I   learned  on  enquiry,  that  the 
fresh  beef  sent  to  the  prison  usually  fell  short  from  one  thou- 
l  to  twelve  hi  ument.     The  ex- 

pedients resorted,  to  by  the  men  to  supply  this  want  of  animal 
food  were  disgusting.  Many  found  an  acceptable  substitute 
in  rats,  with  which  the  place  abounded,  and  these  Chinese 
delicacies  commanded  an  average  price  of  about  four  cents 
ece — in  green':  [haves  i       ''thorn  in  various 

states  of  preparation,  and  have  been  assured  by  those  who  in- 
dulged in  them,  that  ave  been  eaten — an  E 
of  their  value  thai  1  took  on   trust. 


88  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

Others  found  in  the  barrels  of  refuse  fat,  which  were  accu- 
mulated at  the  cook-house,  and  in  the  pickings  of  the  bones, 
which  were  cut  out  of  the  meat  and  thrown  out  in  a  dirty  heap 
back  of  the  kitchen  to  be  removed  once  a  week,  the  means  of 
satisfying  the  craving  for  meat,  which  rations  would  not  satis- 
fy. I  have  seen  a  mob  of  hungry  "  rebs,"  besiege  the  bone- 
cart,  and  beg  from  the  driver  fragments  on  which  an  August 
sun  had  been  burning  for  several  days,  until  the  impenetrable 
nose  of  a  Congo  could  hardly  have  endured  them. 

vVhile  on  the  subject  of  rations  I  may  refer  to  a  substance 
used  very  generally  here  in  the  preparation  of  soup,  which 
adds  greatly  to  its  healthfullness  and  which,  as  I  have  not  heard 
of  it  from  prisoners  elsewhere,  is,  I  suppose,  peculiar  to  this 
prison — dessicated  vegetables.  A  couple  of  hundred  pounds 
of  the  matter — which  consisted  of  all  kinds  of  vegetables, 
kiln-dried -and  compressed  into  cakes  of  about  a  foot  square 
and  two  inches  thick — would  thicken  soup  for  9000  men,  at  a 
cost  very  insignificant. 

Twice  a  day  the  camp  poured  its  thousands  into  the  mess 
rooms  where  each  man's  ration  was  assigned  him,  and  twice  a 
day  the  aforesaid  rations  were  characterized  by  disappointed 
"  rebs  "  in  language  not  to  be  found  in  a  prayer  book.  Those 
whose  appetite  was  stronger  than  their  apprehensions  fre- 
quently contrived  to  supply  their  wants  by  "  flanking  " — a 
performance  which  consisted  in  joining  two  or  more  compa- 
nies as  they  successively  went  to  the  mess-rooms,  or  in  quietly 
sweeping  up  a  ration  as  the  company  filed  down  the  table. — 
As  every  ration  so  flanked  was,  however,  obtained  at  the  ex- 
pense of  some  helpless  fellow  prisoner,  who  must  lose  that 
meal,  the  practice  was  almost  universally  frowned  upon,  and 
the  criminal  when  discovered,  as  was  frequently  the  case  was 
subjected  to  instant  punishment. 

This  was  either  confinement  in  the  guard  house,  solitary 
confinement  on  bread  and  water,  the  "  sweat  box,"  or  the  bar- 
rel shirt.  The  war  has  made  all  these  terms  familiar,  except 
the  third  perhaps  :  by  it  I  mean  a  wooden  btfx  about  seven 
feet  high,  twenty   inches   wide,  and  twelve  deep}  which  was 


five  months  among  the  Yankees.       SI 

by  fifteen  or  twenty  officers,  and  as  many  non-commissioned 
officers,  chiefly  of  the  militia  or  the  veteran  reserves.  Among 
them  were  some  characters  which  are  worth  a  paragraph. 

There  was  a  long-nosed,  long-faced,  long-jawed,  long-bearded 
long-bodied,  long-legged,  endless-f  ad  long-skirted   curi- 

osity, yclept  Captain  Peck,  ostensibly  engaged  in  taking  charge 
of  certain  companies  of  ■  employed  In  turning 

a  penny  by  huckstering  the.  various  products  of  prisoners'  skill — 
an  occupation  very  profitable  to  Peck,  but  generally  unsatisfac- 
tory, in  a  pecuniary  way,  to  the  "rebs."  Many  of  them  have 
told  me  oJ£  the  impossibility  of  getting  their  just  dues  from  the 
prying,  round-shouldered  captain,  who  had  a  snarl  and  an  oath 
for  eveiy  one  out  of  whom  he  was  not,  at  that  instant,  making 
money,  and  exhibited  generally  the  characteristics  of  a  long  an- 
cestry of  Connecticut  clock  peddlers.  He  diversified  his  specu- 
lations in  cheap  jewelry,  by  attentions  to  a  handsome  marc,  of 
which  he  seemed  quite  proud,  and  who  was  far  the  nobler  animal 
I  suspect. 

•  Another  rarity  of  the  "pen  "  was  one  Lieut.  Jno.  McConnell,  a 
"braw  chiel,"  who  had  eclipsed  fiction  in  his  noble  deeds  whilo 
in  the  field,  and  whose  bile  was  so  grievously  stirred  up  against 
the  rebels  that  he  could  not  keep  his  tongue  or  hands  from  them 
even  here.  He  had  an  oath  and  a  drawn  pistol  on  every  occa- 
sion, and  would  fly  into  a  passion  over  the  merest  nothing,  that 
would  have  been  exceedingly  amusing,  but  for  a  wicked  habit  ho 
had  of  laying  about  him  with  a  stick,  a  tent  pole — anything  that 
fell  into  his  hands.  He  was  opening  a  trench  one  day,  through 
the  camp,  when,  for  the  crime  of  stepping  across  it,  he  forced  a 
poor,  sick  boy,  who  was  on  his  way  to  the  dispensary  for  medi- 
cine, to  leap  backwards  and  forwards  over  it  till  he  fell  from  ex- 
haustion amid  the  voluble  oaths  of  the  valiant  lieutenant.  One 
lieutenant  llichmond  kept  McC.  in  countenance  by  following 
closely  his  example.  lie  is  a  little  compound  of  fice  and  weasel, 
and  havhi  ge  of  the  cleaning  up  of  the  camp,  has  abundant 

opportunities  to  bully  and  insult,  but  being,  fortunately,  very  far 
short  of  grenadier  size,  he  does  not  use  his  boot  or  fist  as  freely 
as  his  great  exemplar,  who  is  never  idle.     No  one,  however,  was 

11 


82  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

safe  from  either  of  them,  who,  however  accidentally  and  inno- 
cently, fell  in  their  way,  physically  or  metaphorically. 

Of  the  same  block  Captain  Bowcten  was  a  chip  :  a  fair-haired, 
light-moustached  Saxon-faced  "Yank" — far  the  worst  type  of 
man,  let  me  tell  you,  yet  discovered — whose  whole  intercourse 
with  the  prisoners  was  the  essence  of  brutality.  An  illustration 
will  paint  him  more  thoroughly  than  a  philippic.  A  prisoner 
named  Hale,  belonging  to  the  old  Stonewall  brigade,  was  disco 
vered  one  day  rather  less  sober  than  was  allowable  to  any  but 
the  loyal,  and  Bowden  being  ofaper  of  the  guard,  arrested  him 
and  demanded  where  he  got  his  liquor.  This  he  refused  to  tell, 
as  it  would  compromise  others,  and  any  one  bat  a  Yankee  would 
have  put  him  in  the  guard  house,  compelled  him  to  wear  a  bar- 
rel shirt,  or  inflicted  some  punishment  proportionate  to  liis  oifmcc. 
All  this  would  have  been  very  natural,  but  not  Borden ish,  so 
this  valorous  Parolles  determined  to  apply  the  torture  to  force  a 
confession !  Hale  was  accordingly  tied  up  by  the  thumbs,  that  is, 
his  thumbs  were  fastened  securely  together  behind  his  back,  and 
a  rope  being  attached  to  the  cord  uniting  them,  i  issed* 

over  a  cross  bar  over,  his  head  and  hauled  down  until  it  raised 
the  sufferer  so  nearly  off  the  ground  that  the  entire  weight  of  his 
body  was  sustained  by  his  thui  ined  in  an  unnatural  posi- 

tion, his  toes  merely  toucL  ground.     The  torture  of  this 

at  the  wrists  and  shoulder  joints  is  exquisite,  but  Hale  persisted 
in  refusing,  and  culled  on  his  fellow-prisoners,  many  of  whom 
were  witnesses  of  this  refined  villainy,  to  remember  this  when 
they  get  home.  Bowden  grew  exasperated  at  his  victim's  forti- 
tude, and  determined  to  gag  him.  This  he  essayed  to  accom- 
plish by  fastening  a  h  k  tent-pin  in  his  mouth,  and  when 
he  would  not  open  his  mouth  sufficiently — not  an  easy  operation — 
he  struck  him  in  the  face  with  the  oaken  billet,  a  blow  which 
broke  several  of  his  teeth  and  covered  his  mouth  with  blood ! 

On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  officers  were  as  humane  and 
merciful  as  these  wretches  were  brutal  and  cowardly,  and  all 
who  were  my  fellow-prisoners,  will  recall,  with  grateful  remem- 
brance, Captain  Benj.  Munger,  Lieutenant  Dalgleish,  Sergeant- 
major  Rudd,  Lieutenant McRee,  Lieutenant  Ilaggcrty,  commiesa- 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG    THE   YANKEES.  S3 

tj  of  one  of  the  regiments  ,r  us,  a  whole-souled  fellow, 

and  one  or  two  otl 

These  officers  were  assigned  in  tl  rtion  of  one  to  every 

company  at  first,  but  to  every  three-hundred  or  four-hundred 
men  afterwards,  and  were  char  b  the  duty  of  superintend- 

ing roll-calls,  inspecting  quarters,  and  seeing  that  the  men  under 
their  charge  got  their  rations,  and  the  system  was  excellent, 

During  the  month  of  July,  4,823  prisoners  were  entered  on  the 
records  of  Elmira  prison,  and  by  the  20th  of  August,  the  date  of 
the  last  arrivals.  9,607. 

The  barrack  accommodations  did  not  suffice  for  quite  half  of 
them,  and  the  remainder  were  provided  with  "A"  tents,  in  which 
they  continued  to  be  housed  when  I  left  the  prison  in  the  middle 
of  the  following  October,  although  the  weather  was  piercingly 
cold.      Thinly    cl  •   from  a   summer's   campaign, 

many  of  them  without  blanket  .  vithout  even  a  handful  of 

straw  between  them  anil  the  frozen  earth,  it  will  surprise  no  one 
the  suffering,  even  at  that  early  day,  was  considerable. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

Medical — A  Sage  Doctor — Pride  of  Consistency — General 
Hospital  Arrangements — Commissariat — The  Rations  and  the 
Rats — Pun  ishvi' 

As  I  have  spoken  of  the  military  goverment  of  Elmira 
Priscfn,  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  pursue  the  statistical 
view,  now  that  I  am  in  it,  by  a  brief  chapter  on  the  Medical 
and  Commissary  Departments,  before  I  resume  the  thread  of 
the  more  personal  portion  of  my  narrative. 

The  head  of  the  Medical  Staff  was  Major  E.  L.  Sanger,  a 
gentleman  who  y   faithful,  though  not  quite  as 


81  .        PRISOXEH   OF   AVAR. 

industrious  as  the  needs  of  such  a  post  would  seem  to  demand, 
in  the  discharge  of  the  supervisory  duties,  especially  falling 
under  his  charge.  lie  was  assisted  by  Dr.  Rider,  of  Roches- 
ter, one  of  the  few  "  Copperheads,"  whom  I  met  in  any  office, 
great  or  small  at  the  North.  My  association  was  rather  more 
intimate  with  him  than  with  any  of  the  others,  and  I  believe  him 
to  have  been  a  competent  and  faithful  officer.  Personally  I  ac- 
knowledge his  many  kindnesses  with  gratitude.  The  rest  of 
the  "meds"  were  in  truth,  a  motly  crew  in  the  main,  most  of 
them  being  selected  from  the  impossibility,  it  would  seem,  of 
doing  anything  else  with  them.  I  remember  one  of  the  worth- 
ies, whose  miraculous  length  of  leg  and  neck,  suggested 
"crane"  to  all  observers,  whose  innocence  of  medicine  was 
quite  refreshing.  On  being  sent  for  to  prescribe  for  a  prison* 
er,*who  was  said  to  have  bilious  lever,  he  asked  the  druggist, 
a  "  reb,"  in  the  most  naive  manner,  what  was  the  usual  treat- 
ment for  that  disease  !  Fortunately,  during  his  stay  at  Elmi- 
ra,  which  was  not  long,  I  re  no  drugs  in  the  Dispensa- 

ry, or  I  shudder  to  picture  the  conseq  This  depart- 

ment was  constantly  undergoing  changes,  and  I  suspect  that 
the  whole  system  was  intended  as  part  of  the  education  of  the 
young  doctors  as  ion  as  they  learned  to 

distinguish  b  nine  and  magnesia  they  were  removed 

to  another  field  of  labor. 

The  whole  camp  was  divided  into  wards,  to  which  physi- 
cians were  assigned,  among  whom  were  three  "  rebel  "  pris- 
oners, Dr.  Lynch  of  Baltimore,  Dr.  Martin  of  South  Carolina, 
Dr.  Graham,  formerly  of  Stonewall  Jackson's  Staff,  and  a  fel- 
low townsman  of  the  lamented  hero.  These  ward  physicians 
treated  the  simplest  cases  in  their  patient's  Barrack,  and  trans- 
ferred the  more  dangerous  ones  to  the  Hopitals,  of  which 
there  were  ten  or  twelve,  capable  of  accommodating  about 
eighty  patients  each.  Here  every  arrangement  was  made  that 
carpenters  could  make,  to  insure  the  patients  against  unneces- 
sary mortality,  and  indeed  a  system  was  professed,  which 
would  have  delighted  the  heart  of  a*  Sister  of  Charity,  but, 
alas,  the  practice   was  quite  another  thing.     The   most  scan- 


FIVE    MONTHS   AMONG    THE   YANKEES.  85 

dalous  neglect  prevailed  even  in  so  simple  a  matter  as  provi- 
ding food  for  the  sick,  and  I  do  not  doubt  that  many  of  those 
who  died,  perished  from  actual  starvation.  Sometimes  the 
fault  would  be,  that  a  lazy  doctor  would  not  make  out  his 
provision  return  in  time,  in  which  case  his  whole  ward  must 
go  without  food,  or  with  an  inadequate  supply  till  the  next 
day.  Another  time  there  would  be  a  difficulty  between  the 
Chief  Surgeon  and  the  Commissary,  whose  general  relations 
were  of  the  stripe  characterized  by  S.  P.  Andrews,  as  "  cat- 
and-dogamy,"  which  would  result  in  the  latter  refusing  to 
furnish  the  former  with  bread  for  the  sick  !  In  almost  all 
eases  the  " spiritus  frumenti"  failed  to  get  to  the  patients,  or 
in  so  small  a  quantity  after  the  various  tolls,  that  it  would  not 
quicken  the  circulation  of  a  canary.  Another  trouble  was,  the 
inexcusable  deficiency  of  drugs.  Duri&g  several  weeks  in 
which  Dysentery  and  Inflammation  of  the  Bowels  were  the 
prevalent  diseases  in  prison,  there  was  not  a  grain  of  any  pre- 
paration of  opium  in  the  Dispensary,  and  man)'-  a  poor  fellow 
died  for  the  want  of  a  common  medicine,  which  no  family 
is  ordinarily  without — that  is  if  men  ever  die  for  want  of 
drugs. 

There  would  be  and  is  much  excuse  for  such  deficiencies  in 
the  South,  and  this  is  a  matter,  which  the  Yankees  studiously 
ignore — inasmuch  as  the  blockade  renders  it  impossible  to  pro- 
cure any  luxuries  eveu  for  our  own  sick,  and  curtails  aud 
renders  enormously  expensive  the  supply  of  drugs,  of  the 
simplest  kind,  providing  they  are  exotics ;  but  in  a  nation 
whose  boast  it  is  that  they  do  not  feel  the  war,  with  the  world 
open  to  them,  and  supplies  of  all  sorts  wonderfully  abundant, 
it  is  simply  infamous  to  starve  the  sick  as  they  did  there,  and 
equally  discreditable  to  deny  them  medicines — indispensable, 
according  to  Esculapian  traditions.  The  result  of  the  igno- 
re of  the  doctors,  and  of  I  rseness  of  these  supplies, 
was  soon  apparent  in  the  shocking  mortality  of  this  camp, 
notwithstanding  the  healthfulness  claimed  for  the  situation. 
i  exceeded  even  the  reported  mortality  of  Andersonville, 
great  as  that  was,  and  disgraceful  as  it  was  to  our  government 


86  PRISONER  OF  WAB. 

and  to  civilization,  if  it  resulted  from  causes  within  the  con- 
trol of  our  authorities.  A  published  report  made  to  Lincoln, 
by  four  returned  Andersonville  prisoners  alleged,  that  out  of 
a  population  of  about  36,000  at  that  pen,  six  thousand  or  one 
sixth  of  the  whole,  died  between  the^st  of  February  and  the 
1st  of  August,  18G4.  Now  at  Elmira,  the  quota  was  not 
made  up  till  the  last  of  August,  so  that  September  was  the 
first  month  during  which  any  just  proportion  could  be  taken, 
and  out  of  less  than  0,500  prisoners  there  at  that  time,  386 
died  during  that  month.  The  same  rate  of  mortality  for  six 
months,  would  give  231G  or  nearly  one  fourth  of  the  whole.  A 
deduction  must  be  made,  arising  from  the  fact,  that  as  the 
whole  number  decreased  by  deaths,  so  the  deaths  might  be 
expected  to  decrease,  but  making  every  allowance,  the  mor- 
tality will  appear  to  be  as  great  in  this  model  prison  as  in  the 
worst  "pen"  in  the  South,  and  at  Elmira  it  resulted,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  from  causes  that  the  government  could  have 
controlled.  During  the  last  sis:  weeks  of  my  prison  life,  it 
wars  my  duty  to  make  out  the  morning  report  of  the  deaths, 
so  I  speak  by  the  card  as  to  these  matters.  And  apropos  of 
this  Death  Record,  two  facts  therein  were  quite  remarkable; 
so  much  so  that  I  called  the  attention  of  many  to  them  ;  the 
first  was  the  large  number  of  North  Carolinians  who  died, 
numbering  generally  nearly,  if  not  quite  half  of  the  whole 
number — a  fact  I  turn  over  to  Mr.  G-radgrind,  "  without  note 
or  comment;"  the  second,  the  entire  absence  of  deaths  from 
intermittent  fever,  or  any  similar  complaint.  Now,  I  knew 
well  that  many  of  th  ii  d  from  this  and  kindred  diseases 

produced  by  I  sma  of  the  stagnant  lake  in  our  camp,  but 

the  reports  wrkich  I  consolidated  ever  rig,  contained  no 

pence  to  them.  I  enquired  at  the  Dispensary,  where  the 
reports  were  first  handed  in  the  cause  of  this  anomaly,  and 
learned  that  Dr.  Sanger  would  sign  no  report,  which  ascribed 
to  any  of  these  diseases,  the  death  of  the  patient !  I  conclu- 
ded that  he  must  have  committed  himself  to  the  harmles'sness 
of  the  lagoon  in  question,  and  determnied  to  preserve  his  con- 
sistency at  the  expense  of  cur  lives,.  \cry  much  after  the  fash- 


FIVE    MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  87 

ion  of  that  illustrious  ornament  of  the  profession,  Dr.  San- 
grado,  who  continued  his  warm  water  and  phlebotomy,  mere- 
ly because  he  had  written  a  book  in  praise  of  that  practice, 
although  "  in  six  weeks  he  made  more  widows  and  orphans 
than  the  siege  of  Trov.'' 

I  could  hardly  help  visiting  on  Dr.  Sanger  the  reproaches 
his  predecessor  received  at  the  hands  of  the  persecuted  peo- 
ple of  Valladolid,  who  "were  sometimes  very  brutal  in  their 
grief,"  and  called  the  Doctor  aud  Gil  Bias  no  more  euphonious 
name  than  "  ignoranl  ms." 

Any  post  in  the  Medic  rtincnt  in  a   Yankee  prison 

camp  is  quite  valuable  on  account  of  the  opportunities  of 
plunder  it   affords,  and    i  the  virtuous  "  meds  "  made 

extensive  use  of  their   advan  Vass   quantities  of  qui- 

nine were  prescribed  that  were  never  taken — the  price,  eight 
dollars  an  ounce,  temptin  apidity  of  the  physicians  be- 

yond all  resistance,  but  the  grand  speculation  was  in  whisky, 
which  was  si:>  ;  ii  id  to  the  Dispensary  in  large  quantities, 
and  could  be  obtained  for  a  consideration  in  any  reasona- 
ble amount  from  a  •  vaded  that  establish- 
ment. , 

The  Commissary  Department  was  under  the  charge  of  a 
cute,  active  ex-bank  officer,  Captain  Gr.  U.  Whiten.  The  ra- 
tion of  bread  was  usually  a  full  pound  per  diem,  forty-five 
barrels  of  flour  being  converted  daily  into  loaves  in  the  bake- 
shop  on  the  premises.  The  meat  ration,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  invariably  scanty,  and  I  learned  on  enquiry,  that  the 
fresh  beef  sent  to  the  prison  usually  fell  short  from  one  thou- 
sand to  twelve  hundred  pounds,  in  each  consignment.  The  ex- 
pedients resorted  to  by  the  men  to  supply  this  want  of  animal 
food  were  disgusting.  Many  found  an  acceptable  substitute 
in  rats,  with  which  the  place  abounded,  and  these  Chinese 
delicacies  commanded  an  average  price  of  about.four  cents 
apiece — in  greenbacks.  I  have  seen  scores  of  them  in  various 
states  of  preparation,  and  have  been  assured  by  those  who  in- 
dulged in  them,  that  worse  things  have  been  eaten — au  esti- 
mate of  their  value  that  I  took  on   trust. 


88  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

Others  found  in  the  barrels  of  refuse  fat,  which  were  accu- 
mulated at  the  cook-house,  and  in  the  pickings  of  the  bones, 
which  were  cut  out  of  the  meat  and  thrown  out  in  a  dirt}"  heap 
back  of  the  kitchen  to  be  removed  once  a  week,  the  means  of 
satisfying  the  craving  for  meat,  which  rations  would  not  satis- 
fy. I  have  seen  a  mob  of  hungry  "  rebs,"  besiege  the  bone- 
cart,  and  beg  from  the.driver  fragments  on  which  an  August 
sun  had  been  burning  for  several  days,  until  the  impenetrable 
nose  of  #a  Congo  could  hardly  have  endured  them. 

"While  on  the  subject  of  rations  I  may  refer  to  a  substance 
used  very  generally  here  in  the  preparation  of  soup,  which 
adds  greatly  to  its  healthfulness  and  which,  as  I  have  not  heard 
of  it  from  prisoners  elsewhere,  is,  I  suppose,  peculiar  to  this 
prison — dessicated  vegetables.  A  couple  of  hundred  pounds 
of  the  matter — which  consisted  of  all  kinds  of  vegetables, 
kiln-dried  and  compressed  into  cakes  of  about  a  foot  square 
and  two  inches  thick — would  thicken  soup  for  9000  men,  at  a 
cost  very  in  int. 

Twice  a  (lay  the  camp  poured  its  thousands  into  the  mess 
rooms  where  each  man's  ration  was  assigned  him,  and  twice  a 
day  the  aforesaid  rations  were  characterized  by  disappointed 
"  rebs  "  in  language  not  to  be  found  in  a  prayer  book.  Those 
whose  appetite  was  stronger  than  their  apprehensions  fre- 
quently contrived  to  supply  their  wants  by  "  flanking  " — a 
performance  which  consisted  in  joining  two  or  more  compa- 
nies as  they  successively  went  to  the  mess-rooms,  or  in  quietly 
sweeping  up  a  ration  as  the  company  filed  down  the  table. — 
As  every  ration  so  flanked  was,  however,  obtained  at  the  ex- 
pense of  some  helpless  fellow  prisoner,  who  must  lose  that 
meal,  the  practice  was  almost  universally  frowned  upon,  and 
the  criminal  when  discovered,  as  was  frequently  the  case  was 
subjected  to  instant  punishment. 

This  wa^  either  confinement  in  the  guard  house,  solitary 
confinement  on  bread  and  water,  the  "  sweat  box,"  or  the  bar- 
rel shirt.  The  war  has  made  all  these  terms  familiar,  except 
the  third  perhaps :  by  it  I  mean  a  wooden  box  about  seven 
feet  high,  twenty   inches   wide,  and  twelve  deep,  which  was 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE    YANKEES.  89 

placed  on  end  in  front  of  the  Major's  tent.  Few  could  stand 
in  this,  without  elevating  the  shoulders  considerably,  and 
when  the  door  was  fastened,  all  motion  was  out  of  the  ques- 
tion. The  prisoner  had  to  stand  with  his  limbs  rigid  and  im- 
movable, until  the  jailor  opened  the  door,  and  it  was  far  the 
most  dreaded  of  the  /<  in  et  anres  of  the  pen.     In  mid- 

summer I  can  fancy  that  a  couple  of  hours  in  such  acollin, 
would  inspire  TartuiVe  himself  with  virtuous  thoughts. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Historic    Precedents — Adventures    with     the    Doctor — Major 
Colt — My    Duties — My    Privileges — Promotion — Gomro. 

When  the  illustrious  Anne  of  Austria  entered  the  city  of  Paris, 
with  her  son  Louis  the  Fourteenth,  a,  few  words  were  spoken  to 
her  by  the  President  de  Bailleul,  which,  according  to  the  ac- 
count of  "solitary  horseman,"  James,  changed  the  whole  after 
histor}'  of  France.  So  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
now  considerably  shattered  by  exposure  in  the  trenches,  sprang 
from  no  more  dignified  source  than  a  canal  project  of  that  genu- 
ine Virginian.  George  Washington.  So  the  fact  that  Charles  I, 
of  England,  stammered,  cost  his  Majesty  his  head.  So  certain 
architectural  speculations  of  that  bull-beaded  Hanoverian, 
George  III,  cost  Britain  the  brightest  jewel  in  her  crown.  So 
the  absurd  weakness  of  Louis  le  Jcunc,  for  shaving  his  chin 
precipitated  France  into  four  centuries  of  warfare.  In  short, 
that  venerable  Romance,  known  by  courtesy  under  the  name 
of  History,  is  crowded  with  illustrations  about  as  veritable 
as  anything  else  therein,  of  the  fact  that  the  most  important  of 
all  matters  may  spring  from  causes  the  most  absurdly  insignifi- 
cant. 

I  have  not  made  these  references,  oh  much-enduring  reader  of 
12 

• 


'JO  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

mine,  to  convict  you  of  incorrigible-  ignorance  in  not  having 
known  them  before,  though  that  would  be  a  laudable  motive 
enough,  no  doubt ;  nor  to  make  a  learned  exordium  to  Chapter 
XV,  though  that  would  be  entirely  justifiable,  since  such  things 
have  an  air  of  extreme  respectability,  and  sugar-coat  an  essay 
very  much  as  a  flaming  caption  in  a  New  York  newspaper  car- 
ries off «.  whole  litany  of  unimportant  lies  below.  In  good  sooth, 
my  only  purpose  was  to  claim  credence  for  an  averai>ent  I  am 
about  to  make,  by  showing  that  my  experience  was  not  excep- 
tional, and  that  there  is  nothing  absolutely  without  a  parallel,  in 
the  declaration,  that  I  owe  whatever  of  peculiar  advantage  I 
enjoyed,  throughout  my  whole  stay  at  Elmira,  to  a  sudden  at- 
tack of  that  undignified  disorder  which  is  treated  with  copious- 
libations  of  extract  of  anise-seed,  in  infantile  victims,  and  Ja- 
maica ginger  and  paragoric  Avhen  the  patient  gets  well  out  of 
long  clothes,  but  which  the  mature  wisdom  of  adult  age  finds 
most  certain  relief  from,  in  Otard  or  Hennessey  "straight." 
\  As  Napoleon  is  said  to  have  been  a  constant  victim  to  this 
complaint,  I  need  not  blush  to  own  that  I  was  similarly  afflicted 
on  my  arrival  at  Elmira,  and  soon  wended  my  way  to  the  drug 
store  to  seek  a  remedy.  Such  are  the  wiles  of  temperance  peo- 
ple, that  it  will  not  do  to  ask,  under  such  circumstances,  for  a 
dram :  the  subterfuges  of  the  Maine  Law  men  having  destroyed 
human  confidence  to  an  alarming  degree,  so  I  suggested  "gan- 
ger" to  a  mild-looking  descendant — longe  intervalle — of  Escula- 
pius,  whom  I  found  the  presiding  genius  of  the  dispensary.  I 
must  have  made  my  request  in  a  super  professional  tone,  for  he 
straightway  inquired  whether  I  were  a  practitioner  of  medicine. 
Being  among  enemies,  I  exhibited  none  of  the  indignation  proper 
to  such  an  imputation,  and  commanding  my  feelings,  merely  re- 
turned a  decided  "no,"  but  the  doctor  evidently  doubted  me 
still,  and  seemed  to  infer  that  I  must  needs  have  a  diploma,  be- 
cause I  knew  the  quant,  suf.  of  Brown's  Essence,  so  he  insisted 
that  I  should  consent  to  come  and  aid  him  in  the  daily  augment- 
ing duties  of  his  new  post.  As,  however,  I  did  not  have  quite 
impudence  enough  to  undertake  the  bolus  business,  I  stoutly  re- 
sisted, to  the  mingled  amazement  and  grief  of  the  chief  Surgeon- 


FIYS  MONTHS  AMONG  THE  YANKEES.  91 

nnd  was  about  to  leave  with  my  close,  when  the  Doctor  intimated 
that  I  might  obtain  em  ploy  meat  at  Headquarters  by  making  ap- 
plication, whereupon,  I  framed,  in  immaculate  caiigraphy,  a  note 
to  Major  Colt,  requesting.him  to  assign  me  to  seme  duty,  which, 
without  compromising  my  position  as  a  hopeless  "rebel,"  would 
give  me  employment — something  to  eke  out  the  monotonous 
days  of  durance.  This,  the  Doctor,  in  whose  eyes  I  had  evi- 
dently found  favor — I  do  not  suppose  he  meant  an  insult  by  sus- 
pecting me  of  medicine — undertook  to  deliver. 

Night  soon  came,  and  on  a  French  bedstead,  composed  of  a 
couple  of  planks,  with  no  bed  clothing  of  any  description,  I 
stretched  myself  for  a  nap.  By  about  three  o'clock,  I  found  it 
necessary  to  turn  out  to  the  wood  pile,  and  seek,  in  diligent  chop- 
ping, the  means  of  restoring  the  circulation,  and,  thereupon,  I 
find  the  following  entry: 

Elmira,  July  13th.  Chopping  wood,  disgusting.  If  I  had 
been  that  "Woodman,"  it  would  have  required  deuced  little  sing- 
ing to  have  induced  me  to  "spare  that  tree,"  or  any  other  tree. 

Day  broke  at  last,  and  by  at  last,  I  essay  to  express  the  fact, 
that  it  seemed  about  as  hard  to  break  as  Colonel  N's  passion  for 
wearing  clothes  that  wont  (it  him — and  shortly  after  roll-call,  I 
received  a  summons  to  the  Major's  tent.  He  offered  me  a  cigar, 
which,  having  no  small  vices,  I  declined,  and  soon  entered  into  a 
free  conversation  in  matters  military,  political,  and  personal, 
concluding  by  handing  me  a  note,  which  I  found  to  be  an  assign- 
meut  to  duty  in  the  office  of  his  Adjutant.  I  reported  at  once, 
and  was  soon  at  work  transferring  to  a  large  "Dooms-day  Book," 
the  record  of  the  name,  regiment,  company,  place  and  time  of 
capture,  ward  and  number  of  each  prisoner,  a  volume  which 
finally  swelled  to  colossal  proportions.  I  subsequently  found 
that  nry  position  entitled  me  to  a  couple  of  cups  of  coffee,  and  a 
fee  of — V      ■  per  diem  !     The  coffee  was  an  anomalous  pro- 

duction, made  by  suspending  a  bag  of  ground  coffee  (?)  in  a  boi- 
ler holding,  I  presume,  a  hundred  gallons,  the  water  in  which 
was  renewed  for  three  days,  when  the  bag  was  taken  out,  empti- 
ed and  re-fj  led.  The  first  day's  boiling  was  fair,  the  second 
unfair,  the  third  a  mockery  and  a  delusion,  but  such  as  it  was,  I 


92  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

accepted  it  very  thankfully,  and  considered  myself  entitled  to 
make  no  complaint,  as  the  Yankee  Sergeants,  in  the  pen,  were 
furnished  with  the  same. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  days,  the  finances  of  the  prisoners  re- 
quired attention,  as  money  began  to  be  sent  them,  and  the  Ledger 
was  entrusted  to  my  keeping,  and  ere  long  this  business  became 
so  onerous  that  a  reorganization  of  the  Department  took  place ; 
three  professional  book-keepers  were  employed,  and  a  miscella- 
neous role  of  duty  was  assigned  me — making  out  the  morning 
death  report,  answering  letters  sent  to  the  Major,  making  various 
enquiries  respecting  the  camp,  keeping  the  Sutler's  daily  accounts 
straight,  and  thrice  a  month,  making  out  the  "detail  accounts" 
of  the  prison.  As  to  this  latter  matter,  Elmira  forms  an  excep- 
tion, I  believe,  to  other  Yankee  prisons.  All  duty  performed  by 
prisoners,  except  the  police  of  the  quarters,  that  is,  the  daily 
cleansing  of  the  camp,  is  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  five  cents  a  day 
for  mere  laborers,  and  ten  cents  for  clerks  and  artificers.  These, 
workmen  arc  divided  into  four  heads,  according  as  they  report  to 
the  Adjutant,  the  Commissary,  the  Surgeon,  or  the  officer  com- 
manding the  labor  detail,  and  as  many  as  four  hundred  men  in 
all  are  thus  provided  with  employment,  which  relieves  them  of 
the  horrible  ennui  of  imprisonment,  and  furnishes  them  with  the 
means  of  securing  a  moderate  supply  of  tobacco — the  universal 
consolation  of  Lee's  Miser ables. 

I  may  add  that  the  wages  thus  earned,  were,  in  all  cases,  as 
far  as  I  had  the  opportunity  of  knowing,  honestly  paid.  I  have 
a  thousand  times  entered  the  credits  on  the  Ledger  to  various 
prisoners,  and  have  seen  them  draw  out  their  deposites  in  the  form 
of  orders. 

In  the  course  of  the  various  changes  in  my  line  of  duty,  I 
gradually  acquired  possession  of  a  comfortable  room,  in  which  I 
soon  rigged  up  a  bunk,  and,  greatest  blessing  of  all,  formed, 
through  the  partiality  of  Capt.  Whiton,  an  alimentary  association 
with  the  Sergeant  of  the  Cook-house,  the  chief  Baker,  and  a 
pair  of  "rebs"  engaged  in  those  establishments,  which  secured 
me  then,  and  thenceforth,  against  any  apprehensions  on  the  sub- 
ject of  rations,  or  any  interest  in  the  rise  of  rats. 


*       FIVE   MONTHS  AMONG   THE  YANKEES.  .        93 

This  association  with  the  officers  commanding  the  prison,  gave 
me,  of  course,  many  opportunities  of  assisting  my  fellow  Con- 
federates, and  I  had  the  happiness  of  being  the  means  of  mak- 
ing the  stay  of  many  of  them  less  irksome,  and  their  restraints 
less  grievous  to  bear,  without  any  compromise  of  their  or  my 
principles  or  position,  which  was  known  to  be  that  of  a  rebel, 
sans  reproche. 


%     CHAPTER  XVI. 

Fearfu  I  Accident— Humanity  of  the  Surgeons—The  Main  Chance 
— Preaching  in  Prison — Lynch  Law — J.  E.  B.  Stuart — Death 
in  Prison — Scurvy — Neio  Restrictions — Library — Digging  Out. 

I  resume  my  extracts  from  my  Diary,  anticipating,  occasionally, 
events  of  subsequent  date,  referring  to  the  same  subjects  : 

Saturday,  July  16th.  xln  ugly  rumor  prevails  in  camp,  that 
a  fearful  accident  occurred  yesterday  on  the  Erie  Railroad — the 
train  bringing  prisoners  here  colliding  with  a  coal  train  going 
east,  near  a  place  called,  I  think,  Shohola.  The  deaths,  it  is 
said,  number  over  fifty,  and  among  them  are  several  cf  the  Yan- 
kee guards.  To-night  we  were  roused  about  mid-night,  with  a 
request  that  we  would  come  and  help  the  wounded  in,  the  train 
having  arrived  with  the  surviving  victims  of  the  catastrophe. 
Many  of  them  were  in  a  horrible  condition,  and  when  I  went  to 
the  Hospital,  the  following  Monday,  I  found  the  wounds  of  many 
still  undressed,  even  the  blood  not  washed  from  their  limbs,  to 
which,  in  many  instances,  the  clothing  adhered,  glued  by  the 
clotted  gore;  still,  the  "Advertiser,"  the  Administration  paper 
in  Elinira,  of  this  morning,  proclaims  to  the  world  that  the  poor 
fellows  were  humanely  cared  for!  Lieutenant  II.,  who  visited 
them  Tuesday,  and   who  expressed  to  mc  his  indignation  in  no 


9-1        ,  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

measured  terms,  at  the'neglect,  could  tell  a  different  story.  An 
attempt  was  made  to  Court-Martial  this  officer,  for  acts  of  kind- 
ness to  the  prisoners,  but  he  put  a  stop  to  all  proceedings  at  once 
by  intimating  to  the  authorities,  that  in  the  event  of  a  trial,  he 
h&d  a  story  to  tell  the  Herald  of  the  inhumanity  of  the  Hospital 
treatment,  at  Elmira,  which  a  trial  would  certainly  force  into 
print.     He  was  not  molested. 

For  many  weeks  afterwards,  friends  and  relatives  tried  to 
obtain  admission  into  the  prison  to  see  and  administer  aid  to  the 
sufferers,  but  were  denied  the  privilege.  In  one  case,  a  very 
near  female  relative  made  a  trip  of  hundreds  of  miles  to  see  a 
prisoner,  and  the  only  indulgence  she  received  was  a  permission 
to  ascend  an  observatory  near  "the  pen"  on  a  certain  hour  in 
the  afternoon,  when  her  kinsman  was  alloyed  to  post  himself 
under  a  tree  in  the  enclosure  with  a  white  handkerchief  around 
his  arm,  and  thus,  at  a  distance  too  great  for  any  communication, 
they  were  allowed  to  gaze  at  each  other  for  an  hour!  While  I 
was  at  Elmira,  I  remember  but  two  or  three  instances  in  which 
any  one  was  allowed  to  visit  a  prisoner.  A  lady,  by  dint  of 
great  exertions,  obtained  from  the  authorities  at  Washington, 
permission  to  visit  her  son,  who  was  badly  wounded,  and  a  cler- 
gyman, by  officiating  in  "the  pen,"  got  the  opportunity  of  a 
brief  conversation  witlihisson — one  or  two  similar  cases  finished 
the  chapter. 

Wednesday,  July  20th.  Our  curiosity  has  been  excited  for 
some  days  past,  by  noticing  a  wooden  structure,  consisting  of 
two  large  platform.?,  one  above  the  other,  which  has  been  going 
up  across  the  road  that  bounds  one  face  of  our  prison.  I  learn, 
to-day,  that  it  is  an  "Observatory"  where  the  sight-seeing  pen- 
chant of  the  "Yanks"  is  to  be  made  available,  to  put  money  in 
the  purse  "of  an  enterprising  partnership,  which  proposes  to  turn 
our  pen  into  a  menagerie,  and  exhibit  the  inmates  to  the  refined 
and  valorous  people  of  the  Chemung  valley,  at  the  moderate  fee 
of  fifteen  cents  a  head  !     "  Refreshments  provided  below" 

The  event  justified  the  wisdom  of  the  venture,  for  one  of  the 
proprietors,  who  was  part  of  the  management  in  our  pen,  assur- 
ed me  that  the  cone  rn  paid  for  itself  in  two  weeks.     I  am  sur- 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  95 

prised  that  Barnum  lias  not  taken  the  prisoners  off  the  hands  of 
Abe,  divided  them  into  companies,  and  carried  them  in  caravans 
through  the  country,  after  the  manner  of  Sesostris,  and  other 
antique  heroes,  turning  an  honest  penny  by  the  shovr. 

So  profitable  was  this  peculiarly  Yankee  ';institooshun," 
that  a  week  or  two  thereafter  a  rival  establishment,  taller  by 
a  score  of  feet  sprang  up,  and  a  grand  "sight-seeing-and-spruce- 
beer"  warfare  began,  which  shook  Elmira  to  its  uttermost 
depths.  Qne  building  was  Radical,  the  other  Copperhead; 
one  was  taller,  the  other  older  and  more  original — qualifica- 
tions considered  important  by  Dr.  Sands,  and  quite  as  apropos 
to  sight-seeing  as  to  Sarsaparilla.  Heaven  knows  where  it 
all  would  have  ended,  but  that  the  Government  confiscated 
the  "Democratic  Platform;'.1  under  the  plea  of  military  neces- 
sity, and  its  Abolition  brother  remained  master  of  the  situa- 
tion. , 

Here  every  summer  afternoon,  the  population  of  Elmira — 
chiefly  of  the  female  persuasion — congregated  to  feast  their 
eyes  on  their  enemies,  much  after  the  fashion  that  the  wor- 
shippers of  Dagon,  mocked  the  mighty  son  of  Manoah.  and 
until  the  days  became  so- cold,  that  exposure  in  so  high  a  posi- 
tion was  unpleasant,  the  shin  plasters  rolled  in,  and  the  lemon 
pop  and  ginger  cakes  rolled  out  of  the  orthodox  observatory, 
to  the  great  pecuniary  comfort  of  the  true-believers  who  own- 
ed it. 

Sunday,  July  24th.  Major  Colt  suggested  yesterday,  that 
it  might  be  desired  by  some  of  the  prisoners  to  have  divine 
service  regularly  on  Sunday,  and  added  that  if  an  application 
were  made  out,  he  would  forward  it  to  Colonel  Eastman,  who 
commanded  the  post,  and  who  would  doubtless  approve  it. 
This  was  done,  and  the  clergymen  of  the  city  readily  assented 
to  the  proposition  to  visit  the  prison  alternately.  Under  this 
arrangement  we  had  service  this  evening,  and  almost  every 
Sunday  afternoon  thereafter.  The  abolition  editor  in  Elmira, 
complained  very  bitterly  of  the  alacrity  with  which  the  cleri- 
cal gentlemen  accepted  the  proposal,  and  intimated  that  it  was 


96  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

due  to  their  curiosity,  not  their  zeal — a  little  quarrel,  I  do  not 
pretend  to  adjust. 

Most  of  the  clergy,  who  thus  obeyed  the  scriptural  injunc- 
tion to  "  visit  prisoners,"  conducted  themselves  properly,  but 
we  had  a  sample  or  two  of  the  large  lunatic  wing  of  North- 
ern orthodox — worthies  of  the  Barebones  type,  who  would 
above  all  things  delight 

"To  prove  their  doctrines  orthodox, 

By  apostolic  blows  and  knocks." 

Conspicuous  among  these  was  a  fanatic  named  Brainerd, 
whose  conduct  was  so  disgusting  that  Lieutenant  Richmond, 
heretofore,  in  this  chronicle  honorably  mentioned,  presented 
the  worthy  with  ten  dollars,  in  testimony  of  his  appreciation! 
The  joke  was  that  Brainerd  was  fool  enough  to  publish  Rich- 
mond's letter  in  the  Elmira  B.  R.  organ — a  gratuitous  adver- 
tisement of  a  fool  and  a  knave.     Arcades  ambo. 

» 

During  the  delivery  of  B.'s  harangue  some  of  his  auditory 
quietly  rose  and  left  the  presence  of  his  abolitionship,  where- 
upon Richmond  arrested  the  non-comformists,  and  but  for  the 
intervention  of  another  officer,  would  have  clapped  them -in  the 
guard-house,  for  the  unpardonable  sin  of  unwillingness  to  re- 
ceive gratuitous  insult.  The  clerical  world  in  Puritan-dom,  has 
not  changed  altogether  from  the  happy  days  of  Quaker  whip- 
ping and  Papist  hanging,  whereof  the  annals  of  Connecticut 
orthodoxy  are  rife.  But  while  we  may  consider  ourselves 
entitled  to  limited  complaint  on  this  score,  it  is  proper  to  do 
justice  to  those  who  piously  performed  their  functions,  preach- 
ing, visiting  the  Hospitals,  and  furnishing  those  who  desired 
them  with  religious  books ;  and  as  falling  particularly  under 
my  own  observation,  I  may  appropriately  make  my  acknowl- 
edgements here  to  Bishop  Timon,  of  Buffalo,  Rev.  Mr.  Kava- 
naugh,  of  Elmira,  and  Rev.  Mr.  Hitselberger  of  Washington, 
whose  attentions  of  this  description  were  worthy  all  praise. 
Rev.  A.  Hull,  D.  B.  of  Elmira,  was  also  untiring  in  his  efforts 
to  supply  the  moral  and  material  wants  of  the  prisoners.  Aside 
from  these  regular  services,  no  evening  passed  without  prayer  • 
meetings,  conducted  by  the  prisoner,-:  themselvc?,  which  were 


FIVE   MONTHS  AMONG   TIIE   YANKEES.  97 

participated  in  with  a  decorum  and  devotion,  which  excited 
as  much  surprise  as  praise  from  our  jailors,  who  during  many- 
months  of  service,  at  the  same  place,  among  the  drafted  men, 
had  never  known  the  torrent  of  Yankee  profanity  and  ob- 
scenity, interrupted  by  the  voice  of  prayer  or  praise. 

Wednesday,  July  27th.  A  sample  of  what  used  to  be 
called  in  Scotia  "  Jeddart  Justice/' — the  ante-type  of  Lynch- 
law — amused  us  to-day.  A  miserable  wretch  was  discovered 
picking  the  pocket  of  a  dead  man  in  one  of  the  hospitals, 
when  the  "rebs"  took  him  before  Major  Colt  for  punishment. 
The  Major  turned  him  over  to  his  comrades,  with  carle  blanche 
to  inflict  an}^  penalty  short  of  killing  or  maiming  him,  so  the 
Athenians  met  in  the  Agora,  and  soon  resolved  on  his  fate. 
A  barrel-shirt  was  first  procured,  and  the  thief  being  invested 
with  it,  was  trotted  at  a  sharp  double-quick  up  and  down  the 
camp,  with  hundreds  of  yelling  followers,  until  he  fell  from 
exhaustion.  He  wa,s  then  rested  [?]  by  being  ridden  on  a 
rail  for  an  hour,  with  the  same  vociferous  procession  at  his 
heels,  and  the  offended  majesty  of  justice  was  still  further 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped,  completely  appeased,  by  launching  him 
bodily  at  the  end  of  this  experiment  into  the  filth}-  pool  in 
the  middle  of  the  camp.  lie  came  out  a  much  sadder,  and 
infinitely  dirtier,  if  not  a  better  man. 

There  has  been  a  rumor  prevalent  in  camp  for  several  days 
past,  that  certain  informal  peace  negotiations  have  been  going 
on  in  hearing  of  Niagara.  To-day  I  obtained  "  by  under- 
ground "  a  copy  of  the  Tribune  of  a  late  date,  in  which  the 
story  is  all  told.  When  the  facts  come  to  be  known  about 
this  war,  the  South  will  be  surprised  to  find  that  there  has 
been  but  one  black  republican,  of  any  prominence  in  the 
North,  who  ever  dared  to  open  his  lips  for  peace,  and  that 
was  Greeley — conduct  quite  of  a  piece  with  the  general  vaga- 
ries of  that  tenant  of  the  white  coat  and  shocking  hat,  who 
has  performed  for  a  third  of  a  century  the  dry-nursing  of  all 
the  isms  in  Christendom — so,  at  least,  say  has  enemies. 

Wednesday,  August  1st.     Got  an  illustrated  paper  with  a 

likeness  and  sketch  of  the  life  of  General  J.  E.  13.  Stuart,  this 
i  ° 


98  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

morning.  A  year  ago  to-day  I  was  playing  chess  under  a 
tree  a  mile  or  so  to  the  left  of  Culpepper  C.  H.,  when  a 
courier  dashed  up  to  General  Mah  one's,  tent,  a  few  yards  off, 
and  in  a  moment,  orderlies  were  hastening  to  regimental 
head-quarters,  and  the  "  long-roll "  soon  brought  the  brigade 
under  arms.  We  had  heard  cannonading  frequently  during 
the  day,  and  learned  that  the  Yankee  cavalry  had  crossed  the 
'  Rappahannock,  and  were  engaging  our  troopers  who  had  been 
left  to  cover  the  rear  of  Lee's  army,  then  on  its  way 

to  Orange.  Anderson's  Division  brought  up  the  rear  of  the 
infantry,  and  Makone's  Brigade  the  rear  of  the  Division,  so 
that  we  expected  to  move  in  the  morning.  It  turned  out, 
however,  that  the  Yankees  were  too  numerous  for  our  cavalry  tp 
handle,  and  we  were  ordered  to  go  to  their  relief.  My  own 
Regiment  happened  to  this  movement,    and  we  were 

double  quicked  at  a  pa  gether  comfortable,  at  97 

Fahrenheit,  in  the  direction  of  the  cannonading,  which  was 
now  growing  quite  distinct  and.  rapid.  We  soon  came  in  sight 
of  the  belt  of  woods,  which  skirts  on  the  West  and  South, 
that  splendid  plain  on  whicl  great  cavalry  review  was 

held  the  year  before,  and  the  Yankees  in  force  appearing,  my 
Reigment  with  one  from  Posey's  Brigade,  was  ordered  to  de- 
ploy as  skirmishers,  and  advance  through  the  woods.  Then, 
for  the  last  time,  I  saw  Stuart.     Gai  along  in  com- 

mand of  the  skirmishers,  conspicuous  from  his  line  person  and. 
horsemanship  at  all  times — then,  doubly  so,  since  the  only 
man  on  the  field  who  was  mounted — his  coolness  and  good 
fortune  attracted  the  attention  of  all.  He  i\  as  everywhere 
along  the  line,  foremost  of  the  foremost,  cheering  all  by  his 
encouraging  words  and  his  fearless  conduct — humming  an 
air,  or  giving  an  order  with  equal  nonchalance,  he  looked 

"  From  clanking  spur  to  nodding  pla 

A  very  star  <Y  chivalry." 

There  may  be  different  opinions  as  to  his  capacity  to  man- 
age large  movements  of  cavalry —  strange  to  say,  there  are 
not  ten  cavalry  heroes  in  History — but  of  his  individual 
courage,  his  presence  of  mind  in  danger,  his  burning  devo- 


FIVE   MONIES   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  99 

tlon  to  the  c  irising  dash  there 

cm  be  no   question.     J  an  officer   of  high    rank 

in  a  different  branch  of  service  is  alv,  reet  morsel  to  the 

soldier,  and  as  we  drove  the  Yankees  to  the  river  bank  that 
evening,  I  saw  many  a  jaded  in  .  step  out  with  a 

li  ;hter  pace  and  a  firmer  tr<  bat  in  hand,  the  gal- 

lant trooper  saluted  our  Re  th  -'handsomely  done 

boys — are  yo\  'om  Peters 

August  10th.  A  heavy  mail  from  Dixie,  whicli  we  can't 
get  because  some  villainous  "rel  ,  aWay  with  the  Bulle- 

tin, board  last  night !  Adjutant  that  until  the  plank 

oomes  bach:,  the  letters  must  lie  in  his  desk,  and  great  is  our 
grief  the] 

August  11th.     This  morning  the  :  ;  plank  came  back, 

ornamented   with  a  pier-board,    whereby 

some  enterprising  Confed.  disgusted  with  prison  monotony, 
doubtless  su]  he  would  be  allowed  in 

himself.  Three  letters  for  me  from  home — a  caballistic  an- 
nouncement in  one  of  them,  -  "as  all  Greek  to  the  "Ex- 
aminer,' me  that  ]  :ral  Grant 
has  been  heavily  punished  "  -,"  (July 
30th.)  Thi  te  of  the  ex- 
plosion of  the  great  Mine,  Mahone  dealt  such  swift  de« 
struction  on  the  d 

One  painful  episode  mars  the  record  of  this  month.  On 
the  21st  of  August,  one  of  our  comrades,  a  young  man  of  ir- 
repr  aracter,  of  in  ce  and  of  a  gentleness  of 

manner,  whi  among  the  enemy,  sank 

nittent  f  Major  Colt, 

;ble    during   his  illness, 

apd  "thing    the  town  af- 

u    for  him  and 
allowed  a  h<  ance  of  the 

body  to  the  3 

their  stinted  .  a  Con- 

federate .    ;md  a  de- 

cided rebel,  though  a  .  read  the  impres- 


100  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

sivc  service  of  the  Episcopal  church,  over  the  remains,  while 
a  little  group  of  bare-headed  men  stood  together  around  "the 
Dead  House,"  in  whose  front  the  body  lay.  This  over,  we 
formed  in  procession  behind  the  hearse,  and  marched  as  far  as 
the  prison  gate — all  the  indulgence  we  could  procure — with 
heavier  hearts,  I  ween,  and  far  more  of  genuine  respect  than 
has  often  marked  the  obsequies  of  King  or  Kaiser. 

How  many  of  us  might  make  our  exit  from  our  prison  bars 
on  this  wise,  and  who  should  be  the  next  thus  followed,  were 
questions  that  did  not  fail  to  suggest  themselves  to  all,  and 
questions  which,  kept  some  faces  solemn  for  days  thereafter. 

August  25th.  The  sutler  has  been  prohibited  for  some  days 
back  from  selling  any  food  to  the  prisoners,  and  the  result  is 
that  fourteen  hundred  cases  of  scurvy  are  reported  this  morning! 
Some  of  them  are  very  aggravated,  and  the  symptoms  are 
positively  fearful.  Men  are  loosing  their  teeth  and  hair,  many 
have  their  bodies  covered  with  sores,  and  their  sinews 
so  contracted  as  to  prevent  all  locomotion,  and  in  almost  every 
instance  these  external  symptoms  are  accompanied  by  disease 
of  the  stomach. 

Only  one  Yankee  grieves  much  at  this — the  sutler.  II13 
profits  are  thereby  cut  down  considerably,  and  as  his  transactions 
usually  amount  to  from  two  hundred  to  two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  per  day,  half  of  which,  I  presume,  is  profit,  he  is  affected 
in  a  vital  part,  and  is  correspondingly  comfortless.  These  phy- 
sical evils  are  further  increased  by  an  order  just  received  from 
Washington  confiscating  all  food  sent  the  prisoners,  unless  the 
Surgeon  would  certify  that  they  were  sick  and  in  need  of  those 
articles,  and  all  clothing,  except  "  a  change  of  under-clothing, 
and  one  outside  suit  of  grey  stuff  and  common  material."  Of 
course,  the  confiscated  articles  were  generally  stolen — the  words 
being  synonymous. 

And  thus  the  weeks  rolled  by.  With  the  outside  world  we  had 
little  in  common — cities  were  surrendered,  States  overrun,  Con- 
ventions held,  battles  won,  the  immortal  roll  of  glory  received 
the  names  of  Polk,   Chambliss,    Morgan,  Rodes,  Gregg,  and  to 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  101 

the  vast  record  of  the  unnamed  heroes,  were  added  thou- 
sands as  worthy  of  memory  as  the  nohlest  of  these.  A 
new  throne  was  set  up  on  this  continent — another  turn  in 
that  great  kaleidescope  which  never  changes  the  nature  of  one 
bead  or  bit  of  glass,  be  the  changes  in  combinations  of  position 
ever  so  radical  and  numerous.  But  to  us  the  book  of  events  was 
sealed.  Occasionally,  by  a  bribe,  we  would  achieve  the  reading 
of  a  newspaper,  and  hear  in  such  partial  phrase  as  prejudice 
affords,  the  story  of  the  great  .tragedy  our  comrades  were  play- 
ing ;  but  the  last  details,  the  points  of  personal  interest — Avho 
Avas  wounded,  who  promoted,  who  dead  among  those  with  whom 
we  had  shared  march  and  camp,  bivouac  and  battle-field — above 
all,  what  individual  havoc  the  battering  of  our  little  city  had 
occasioned — whom  those  sweet  harbingers  of  union  and  amity, 
the  shells  of  Grant,  had  sought  out  and  destroyed;  these  were 
unanswered  questions,  big  with  import  to  us  all. 

Yet,  a  fairer  summer  never  blessed  the  eye,  and  as  we  lolled 
on  the  grass  in  the  long,  dreamy  autumn  evenings,  indulging  les 
delicesdufar  nienle,  nature  seemed  to  whisper  in  every  passing 
cloud  and  sighing  breeze,  a  protest  against  the  fatal  strife  that 
was  desolating  the  land. 

Early  in  September  an  addition  was  made  to  our  comforts  in 
the  shape  of  a  contribution  on  the  part  of  some  benevolent  per- 
sons in  New  York,  of  two  hundred  or  three  hundred  volumes 
wherewith  a  prison  Library  was  formed,  and  the  rush  for  reading 
was  boundless.  Of  course,  these  volumes  were  as  diligently  ex- 
purgated as  though  the  official  "  let  it  be  printed"  adorned  the 
title-page,  still,  in  our  circumstances,  a  plaj'-bill  or  a  price  cur- 
rent would  have  been  interesting,  and  the  shelves  were  soon 
denuded  of  every  thing,  down  tj  infantile  toy-books  and  dilapi- 
dated geographies. 

During  this  month,  two  attempts  at  escape  by  tunnelling  were 
made — the  first  a  failure,  the  second  successful.  Ky  the  latter, 
eleven  enterprising  beavers  nnde   I  •  ipe,  and  the  detach- 

ment sent  after  them  returned  in  tli>'  midst  of  a  snow  which  fell 
on  the  5th  of  October,  without  havii  trace  of  the  fugitives. 

They  commenced  digging  in  the  middle  of  their  tent,  which  was 


102  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

near  an  angle  of  the  pen,  and  conveying  the  earth  in  blanket^ 
to  the  )agoon  in  the  nigh'-,  they  avoided  detection  until  a  hole 
about  thirty  feet  long  and  three  feet  in  diameter  was  completed, 
under  the  fence,  and  on  the  first  moon-less  and  cloudy  night  that 
offered  they  escaped. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

Exchange  Rumors — Tlie  .Negro  Question — Too  Healthy  by 
Half — Application  as  Nurse — -Paroled — Off  for  Dixie — Good 
Bye  to  Major  Colt 

October  1st.  For  several  days  past,  the  rumor  has  been  cur- 
rent in  camp  that  an  exchange  of  the  sick  and  wounded  on  both 
sides  is  on  the  carpet,  and  the  knowing  ones  are  rubbing  up  their 
old  complaints,  getting  their  asthmas,  rheumatisms,  lame  legs,  &c, 
in  working  order  for  the  examination  about  to  take  place.  What 
wonder  that  many  a  paling  eye  flashes  up  now  with  unusual  fire, 
and  many  a  poor,  feeble  pulse,  that  for  weeks  past  has  been 
fighting  an  unequal  battle  with  fever,  starvation,  memory  and 
despair,  bounds  now  with  a  fresh  impetus,  as  in  the  distance,  not 
very  remote,  there  looms  up  the  enchanting  vision  of  wife  and 
child,  mother,  sister — HOME.  Many,  alas  !  who  are  indulging 
themselves  with  this  fair  prospect  will  turn  their  trembling,  tot- 
tering feet  towards  another  home  ere  the  light  of  the  earthly 
one  can  answer  their  longings.     Pulsat  pede. 

To-day  the  rumor  takes  definite  shape  as  the  Surgeons  make 
their  rounds  through  the  wards  examining  the  sick,  and  exclud- 
ing from  the  roll  all  but  those  whose  convalescence  is  apparent* 
and  those  who  will  never  get  better  here  ;  and  it  leaks  out  that  the 
order  from  Washington  is  that  alis  t  must  be  made  of  those  only  who 
will  be  unfit  for  duly  for   sixty  days.     Haying  beat  up  Ireland* 


FIVE  'MONTHS  AMONG  THE  YANKEES.        103 

Germany,  Switzerland  and  Africa  for  recruits,  these  invincible 
twenty  millions  of  Yanks  admit  that  they  are-  still  not  a  match 
for  five  millions  of  Southerners,  and  they  cling  with  the  tenacity 
of  Death  to  every  able-bodied  "reb"  they  can  clutch,  lest  he  mny 
again  enter  the  Southern  army,  where  they  well  know  he  will 
overmatch  any  Yank  that  could  be  exchanged  for  him.  The 
negro  question,  v  y  plead  as  their  excuse  for  declining  a 

general  exchi  bbsh  of  the  first  water.     The  Northern 

people,  and  I  speak  from  long  acquaintance  with  them,  care  in- 
finitely less  for  negroes -than  we.  The  instinctive  aversion  with 
which  all  wit:  d  the  blacks — an  aversion  which  begins 

with  the  traditions  of  infancy,  when  "the  big  black  man"  is  the 
bug-a-boo  wherewith  rebellious  babyhood  is  terrified  into  obe- 
dience— is  in  the  South  modified,  if  not  conquered,  by  constant 
association  and  the  interchange  of  mutually  serviceable  offices. 
In  the  North,  and  wherever  the  white  and  negro  live  together  in 
the  ordinary  condition  of  society  as  rivals  in  labor,  competitors 
for  employment,  claimants  for  equality  of  privilege  or  contest- 
ants for  a  share  of  public  patronage  of  any  kind,  the  interests 
and  instincts  of  the  whites  coalesce  to  ii  instinctive  repul- 

sion into  interested  hate,  and  a  degree  of  intolerance  exists,  of 
which  we  in  the  South  have  no  conception.  It  is  the  free  States 
which  have  made  the  most  odioi    ly  di  icri  laws  against 

the  free  blacks,  and  it  is  only  in  a  free  State  that  such  bloody 
outbreaks  against  the  negroes  as  have  characterized  Ohicag  >and 
New  Y'ork  could  possibly  occur.     It  is  not,  therefore,  black  love 
but  white  fear,  which  is  interposing  difficulties -in  the  way  of  a 
general  barter  of  prisoners,  and  so  controlling  is  this  latter  mo- 
tive that  the  prisoners  at  Andersonville  might  f  ve  sung 
their  sorrows  to  deaf  ears,  but  for  the  advent  of  that  crucible  of 
parties  and  policies — election  day.  The  McClcllan  men  have  pro- 
claimed a  general  exchan                plank  in  their  platfor.a  and 
Humanitarianistn — sorry  I  cai                     i  tor  word,  but  the 
ference  between  that  and  Humanity  is  as  great  as  between 
mousion  and  Uomoiousion,  which  kept  Christendom  in  hot  w 
for  generations — Hui                     q,  I  therefore 

op.     So  the  ingei  I  make  a  compromise  between 


104  PEISOXElt  OF  WAB.       ' 

Justice  and  Expediency  by  exchanging  only  those  who  will  not 
be  fit  for  fighting  until  the  present  campaign  is  over !  and  thus 
take  the  wind  out  of  the  Democratic  sails,  without  sending  a  man 
to  that  army  which  the  veracious  Grant  affirms  is  deserting  to 
him  at  the  rate  of  a  Regiment  a  day  ! 

Individually,  my  case  is  pitiable  indeed.  Full  rations  of  beef, 
a  quiet  conscience  and  a  good  digestion,  have  left  me  in  an  awk- 
ward exuberance  of  health  which  precludes  all  hope  of  dischai'ge 
on  the  ground  of  unfitness  for  duty  for  sixty  days.  Indeed,  I 
am  afraid  that  protracted  residence  here  may  induce  a  physical 
conditionjwhich  even  the  example  of  Louis  le  Gros,*  Sobieski  and 
Dixon  II.  Lewis  could  not  reconcile  me  to,  and  I  am  forced, 
therefore,  to  seek  an  occasion  of  deliverance  on  grounds  not 
hygienic.  It  occurs  to  me  that  it  is  incredible  that  so  many 
misera.bles  will  be  sent  on  a  voyage  South  without  attendants  as 
nurses,  and  I  am  resolved  to  try  the  effect  of  an  appeal  for  per- 
mission to  accompany  the  sick  in  that  capacity. 

October  3rd.  The  hospital  examinations  completed,  the 
search  for  unavailables  began  to-day  in  the  wards.  At  10 
o'clock,  the  camp  was  mustered  by  companies,  and  Major  Colt 
accompanied  by  the  Medical  Staff  and  a  Clerk  to  record  the 
names,  made  a  careful  inspection  on  this  wise.  The  prisoners, 
by  company,  being  in  line,  Major  Colt  gave  notice,  that  all 
who  desired  to  be  examined,  must  step  three  paces  to  the  front. 
Each  man  thus  presenting  himself  was  examined,  and  those 
found  unfit  by  reason  of  age,  or  sickness  or  wounds,  were  re- 
corded, while  the  rest  were  sent  back  sorrowing.  This  oper- 
ation and  the  making  out  of  the  rolls  occupied  several  days 
and  nothing  else  was  talked  of,  or  thought  of  in  camp.  At  last, 
on  the  8th,  the  lists  were  completed,  some  fifteen  hundred  were 
found  "unfit  for  duty  for  60  days,"— one  sixth  of  the  whole — 
and  on  the  morning  of  the  9th,  notice  was  given  that  the 
"  paroles  "  would  be  taken  that  day.  No  news  had,  up  to- 
this  time,  reached  me  as  to  the  result  of  my  application  for 
detail  as  a  nurse,  and  my  hopes  of  deliverance  received  sun- 
dry rude  shocks  during  the  week  from  the  announcement, 
confidentially  made  by  one  or  two  of  the  Yankee  officers,  that- 


FIVE  MONTHS  AMONG  THE  YANKEES.         105 

I  should  bo  "  the  last  rebel  that  should  leave  that  pen/'  a  dis- 
tinction I  was  supposed  to  have  attained  by  unusual  bitterness 
of  hostility  to  Yanks  and  Yankeedom, — Major  Colt  even  hon- 
oring me,  as  I  understand  from  a  friend,  by  his  imprimatur  as 
the  worst  " seccsh"  in  camp. 

October  9th.  Io  triumphe  !  Evoe  I  A  knock  at  my  door 
ten  minutes  after  9 ;  my  friend  D.  calls  me  out  with  the 
gravity  of  a  Lord  Chancellor,  and,  soflo  voce,  announces 
"Major  Colt  has  just  put  your  name  down  on  the  list."  Un- 
fortunately the  sumptuary  regulations  of  the  pen  preclude  the 
orthodox  American  fashion  of  expressing  unlimited  gratifica- 
tion, sol  content  myself  with  feeling  as  much  joy  as  is  consis- 
tent with  sanity,  and  straightway  go  about  disposing  of  my 
various  importable  chattels  among  less  favored  friends — the 
universal  concomitant  of  emigration. 

Little  was  now  done  or  talked  of  by  any  one  except  the  ap- 
proaching Hegira  of  the.  lucky  candidates  for  exchange. 
Many  a  brawny  fellow  with  the  thews  of  Alcides  Would  glad- 
ly exchange  his  exuberant  health  and  perfect  strength,  for  the 
most  helpless  frame  and  the  puniest  limbs  in  the  hospital,  and 
numberless  expedients  to  elude  the  vigilance,  or  corrupt  the 
integrity  of  the  examiners  were  practiced — with  what  success 
I  am  not  here  to  tell.  * 

Numerous  parole  lists  having  been  made  out,  the  fortunate 
ones  signed  their  names,  either  in  person  or  by  proxy,  to  an 
obligation  whereby  they  bound  themselves,  not  to  take  up 
arms  against  the  United  States,  nor  to  perform  any  guard  or 
other  military  duty  in  the  field,  or  at  any  post  or  elsewhere, 
during  the  War  until  duly  exchanged. 

On  the  morning  of  the  11th,  all  .being  in  readiness  the 
fourteen  hundred  for  exchange  were  called  out  alphabetically, 
and  in  three  squadd  at  different  hours  of  the  day,  marched 
through  the  city  from  the  pen  to  the  Erie  Kailroad  Depot, 
where  two  trains  of  box  cars  stood  waiting. 

I  took  leave  of  my  companions,  with  the  regret  with  which 
intimate  association,  such  as  that  of  prison,  is  sure  to  tinge  the 
parting  of  the  most  callous,  and  from  none  with  more  than 
14 


106  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

the  excellent  officer  and  gentleman  who  commanded  the  pris- 
on. His  eyes  filled  as  he  bade  me  good-by  at  parting,  and  I 
fear  my  own  were  not  altogether  dry,  as  for  the  last  time  I 
wrnng  the  hand  of  the  true  man,  and  humane,  courteous  offi- 
cial, Major  Colt.  He  handed  me  a  memorandum  as  we  part- 
ed, asking  my  kind  offices  for  Lieutenant-Colonel  John  E. 
Strang  of  his  Regiment,  and  I  almost  felt  regret  at  hearing  of 
Colonel  S.'s  release  subsequently,  as  it  prevented  me  from  re- 
ciprocating on  my  return  home,  in  some  slight  degree,  atten- 
tions and  courtesies,  which  I  in  common  with  all  my  Peters- 
burg comrades,  had  constantly  received  at  the  hands  of  this 
excellent  officer. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Off  fo^  Baltimore — Contraband  Communication — Point  Look" 
out  Again — Yankee  Petty  Larceny — Jackson's  Valley  Cam- 
paign— Diagnosis — Afloat — A  Gallant  Officer — -Hampton  Roads 
— Prizes  and  Prize  Money — Hilton  Head — Mitchel-town — Sa- 
vannah — Home. 

Our  passage  through  Blmira  did  not  excite  quite  the  atten- 
tion, which  marked  our  journey  through  the  same  streets- 
three  months  before,  the  curiosity  of  the  Chemung  Athenians 
having  become  satiated  with  such  sights.  Many  citizens  who 
dared  to  approach  us  Avith  expressions  of  sympathy  accom- 
panied us  to  the  cars,  and  ministered  as  they  were  able  to  the 
comfort  of  the  most  needy,  but  there  was  none  of  the  obtru- 
sive following  and  staring,  with  which  we  were  honored  on 
our  first  appearance. 

It  was  nearly  night  fall  when  we  were  "  all  aboard/'  the 


FIVE  MONTHS  AMONG  THE  YANKEES.         107 

engines  screamed  and  oft'  we  started  for  Dixie.  We  would 
scarcely  have  felt  as  much  exhilaration  had  we  known  that 
the  trip  would  take  a  full  month! 

The  events  of  the  next  forty  hours,  consist  in  the  dismal 
items  of  a  creeping  ride  over  the  "Northern  Central"  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad,  which  leaves  the  Erie  Road  at  Southport,  and 
traverses  the  mast  barren  and  uninteresting  region  of  the 
Keystone  State,  through  Harrisburg  to  the  Maryland  line, 
and  on  to  Baltimore.  I  remember  nothing  particularly  of 
this  trip,  except  that  whenever  the  train  stopped,  the  guards 
robbed  the  nearest  orchards;  that  I  slept  the  first  night  in  a 
space  of  thi'  y  six  inches;  that  I  consumed  fabulous 

quantities  of  crackers ;  that  when  I  got  into  Maryland,  we 
found  various  flags  living  in  honor  of  the  vote  for  emancipa- 
tion, given  the  day  before;  that  for  slowness  of  movement,  I'll 
match  that  ride  against  even  the  traditions  of  the  "old  City 
Point  "  road — a  comparison  which  exhausts  the  resources  of 
reproach  ;  and  finally  that,  after  jolting  enough  to  have  killed 
twenty  fashionables,  we  arrived  in  Baltimore  on  the  morning 
of  the  loth,  about  10  o'clock,  with  seven  corpses  in  the  dead 
car— 'the  first  toll  of  the  reaper. 

A  few  ladies  and  children  were  at  the  depot — those  who 
dareato  brave  the  fines  and  dungeons,  the  imprisonment  and 
insult,  and  exile,  with  which  humanity  and  the  natural  yearn- 
ings of  kin-ship  are  crushed  out  in  loyal  Baltimore ;  but,  I 
doubt  not,  there  were  th  of  hearts  in  that  fair  town 

that  day,  who  would  have  thought  it  the  highest  honor  to 
have  been  allowed  to  minister  to  the  sick  and  dying  in  our 
•  trains,  and  were  only  restrained  from  coming  by  their 
unwillingness  to  witness  sufferings  that  they  could  not  allevi- 
ate, while  the  mere  effort  would  compromise  them,  without 
aiding  us.  The  train  had  hardly  slopped,  when  a  gorgeously 
caparisoned  1  Maj>>r  dashed  into  the  little  crowd  of 

ladii  ■  around   the  car   nearest  the  street, 

with  enquire  ir  relatives,  and  the  less  noble  animal 

forced  tfeem  with  a  brutal  sneer  and  an  intimation  in 

decided  terms,  that  a  renewal  of  the  experiment  of  speaking  to 


108  PRISONER   OF  WAR. 

us,  would  infallibly  result  in  their  being  sent  to  the  common 
guard-house ! 

I  was  particularly  sorry  for  this,  as  I  desired  to  send  a 
message  to  a  friend  in  the  city,  and  I  resolved  to  evade  the 
order  prohibiting  intercourse.  Tearing  a  leaf  from  my  note- 
book, I  jotted  down  a  few  lines  and  rolling  the  letter  in  as 
small  a  compass  as  possible,  I  watched  my  opportunity  when 
the  guards  were  not  looking  in  my  direction,  to  hold  it 
up  with  a  gesture  that  attracted  one  of  the  ladies. '  As  soon  as 
a  fair  opportunity  offered,  I  shot  the  "paper  pellet  "  toward 
her,  and  was  much  gratified  to  observe  the  diplomatic  non- 
chalance with  which  she  put  her  foot  on  the  missive,  quietly 
continuing  her  conversation  with  a  female  friend  meanwhile. 
A  moment  or  two  afterwards  she  accidentally  let  fall  her  hand- 
kerchief and  stooping  to  recover  it,  picked  up  my  note  with 
it,  and  conveyed  both  to  her  pocket — all  this  without  a  look 
towards  me.  It  was  several  minutes  before  she  honored  me 
with  a  glance  of  intelligence,  which  satisfied  me  my  commu- 
nication was  in  safer  hands  than  any  mail  system  in  Christen- 
dom could  furnish. 

During  the  day,  for  it  required  all  day  to  get  us  from  the 
depot  to  the  dock,  several  ladies  remained  near  us ;  by  strate- 
gem,  entreaty — any  means,  and  every  means — conveying  to 
the  wretched  inmates  of  our  train,  coffee,  bread,  cakes,  fruit, 
tobacco — anything  in  short  that  money  could  buy,  or  woman's 
kindness  of  heart  suggest.  Among  these  a  few  were  conspic- 
uous in  their  zeal  to  serve  us,  and  I  remember  best  a  courage, 
ous  woman,  with  a  true  Baltimore  face,  dark  eyes,  a  Southern 
complexion,  lithe,  graceful  form,  and  features  radiant  and  mo- 
bile with  intelligence  and  beauty,  and  the  divine  glory  of 
charity,  who  spent  the  long  day  in  these  ministrations,  unawed 
by  frowns,  undismayed  by  threats,  and  conquering  her  native 
womanly  disgust  at  the  vulgar  hirelings,  that  outstripped 
even  Yankee  heartlessness  in  the  cruelty  and  brutality,  with 
which  they  repulsed  all  efforts  at  communication  with  us. 
Her  name  in  two  hemispheres  Is  the  synonym  of  all  that  is 


FIVE   MONTHS  AMONG  THE   YANKEES.  109 

noble,  true  and  good,  and  from  Pope's  day  to  our  own,  has 
formed  the  best  antithesis  to 

" kDaves  and  fools  and  cowards." 

The  sun  was  setting  as  I  jumped  on  an  ambulance  well  fill- 
ed with  hospital  equipage,  and  rattled  oft*  to  the  wharf,  where 
three  steamers  were  awaiting  us.  That  night  about  10|,  we 
started  for  Point  Lookout,  whence  we  are  to  be  reshipped. 

It  was  nearly  dawn  when  I  awoke  to  find  our  craft  har*3 
aground  off  Point  Lookout ;  but  soon  the  tide  rose  and  we 
steamed  up  to  the  dock, — a  heavy  sea  running. 

Now  commenced  the  troublesome  and  dangerous  operation 
of  getting  the  helpless  sick  ashore.  A  gangway  plank  was 
stretched  from  the  side  of  the  ship  to  two  flour  barrels  stand- 
ing on  the  dock,  and  down  this  "  shute  "  the  poor  helpless, 
maimed  creatures  were  slid  like  coal  into  a  vault.  Those  of 
us  who  were  able,  spent  our  time  in  alleviating  the  roughness 
of  tbis  original  process  of  debarkation,  and  assisted  in  placing 
the  sick  and  wounded  in  the  ambulances  which  conveyed 
them  to  the  hospital  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant. 

Between  the  arrival  of  the  first  ship  and  the  second,  I 
walked  to  the  hospital  and  deposited  in  the  steward's  room  of 
No.  8,  my  "pack,"  expecting  to  return  and  get  it  when  my 
duties  on  the  wliarf  were  over.  Unluckily  I  did  not  get  it 
for  two  days,  and  of  course,  when  I  recovered  it,  everything 
valuable  was  stolen.  This  petty  larceny  was  committed  by  a 
smooth-faced  innocent,  with  a  downy  upper  lip,  who  at  that 
time  acted  as  orderly  for  Dr.  Thompson,  the  Chief  Surgeon  of 
the  post.  Three  weeks  afterwards,  Dr.  Thompson  returned 
me  one  or  two  of  the  articles  stolen,  but  allowed  (I  presume) 
his  underling  to  keep  the  rest.  This  at  least  I  know,  that  I 
furnished  Dr.  Th  with  a  full  description  of  the  stolen 

goods,  some  of  which  I  saw  his  orderly  wearing  the  day  I 
finally  left  the  Point,  bu  aceived  ept  a  trifling 

proportion  of  the  whole.  All  this  I  regretted,  mainly,  be- 
cause I  lost  thereby  several  beautiful  specimens  of  prison 
work  that  I  was  bringing  home  to  my  friends — and  the  only 


110  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

comfort  I  received  from  my  comrades,  was  a  -sneer  at  my  gul- 
libility in  leaving  anything  valuable  out  of  my  sight  when 
Yankee  soldiers  were  about. 

Towards'  night-fall,  the  sick  and  wounded  who  required 
treatment  having  all  been  removed  to  the  hospitals,  the  re- 
mainder of  the  prisoners  were  marched  to  the  old  "  officers' 
pen,"  and  turned  in  with  the  suggestion  that  we  make  our- 
selves as  comfortable  as  possible  ! — a  rather  grim  joke  that. 
While  in  line  and  before  dismissal,  I  asked  an  officer  who 
came  with  us  from  Elmira,  to  request  permission  for  me  to  go 
and  get  my  clothing,  &c„  left  at  the  hospital.  He  was  re- 
pulsed in  so  rude  a  manner  by  Major  Brady,  the  command- 
ant of  the  post,  that  he  expressed  to  me  his  apprehensions 
that  my  property  would  certainly  be  stolen — a  comfortable 
prophecy,  as  disagreeable  as  Cassandra's — and  as  true. 

Three  months  had  elapsed  since  I  left  this  pen  on  my  way 
to  Elmira,  and  I  congratulated  myself  no  lttle  on  my  early 
return,  and  on  the  near  prospect  of  falsifying  the  prediction  of 
the  great  representative  thief,  coward  and  brute  of  Massachu- 
setts— now  happily  reporting  at  Lowell.  Day  after  day,  and 
week  after  week  passed  by,  however,  with  no  prospect  of  a 
move.  While  here,  man}'-  prisoners  came  in  from  the  army 
of  General  Early,  in  the  Valley,  whose  demoralization  was 
conspicuous.  How  different  the  story  of  this  unfortunate 
campaign  against  Sheridan,  with  its  long  catalogue  of  robbery 
and  disaster,  from  the  glories  with  which  the  immortal  Jack- 
son illumined  every  hill-side  of  that  long  vale  of  the  Shenan- 
doah !  When  will  thatk  marvelous  story  be  written?  Is 
there  no  one  with  the  genius  to  comprehend,  and  the  book- 
craft  to  do  justice  to  that  wondrous  episode  in  this  wondrous 
war — unparalleled  save  in  the  dazzling  marvels  of  "The 
Campaign  in  Italy."  Who  will  tell,  in  language  worthy  of 
the  theme,  how,  with  a  few  thousand  infantry,  poorly  supplied 
with  everything  but  valor  and  leadership,  this  illustrious 
captain  swept  ar  r.  army  out  of  the  field,  defying  num- 

bers, annihilating  distance,  despising  labor,  regardless  of 
odds,  (airly  revelling  in  the  gaudia  certammis— preferring  to 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  HI 

have,  it  would  seem,  three  armies  to  fight  at  the  same  time, 
that  the  glorious  boys  might  not  fust  with  idleness.  Bravo 
as  "  Lion  Heart,"  modest  as  Sydney,  in  action  as  impetuous 
as  Ney,  in  counsel  cautious  as  Fabius,  reticent  as  Wellington 
magnetic  as  Napoleon — there  is  not  a  meadow  or  mountain, 
top  in  all  that  lovely  valley  that  is  not  alive  with  tribute  to 
thia  matchless  chieftain,  and  yet,  "History"  hardly  accords 
his  grand  camgaign  a  paltry  page,  and  his  name  which  woke 
the  echoes  of  two  hemispheres  seems  doomed  to  find  no  more 
enduring  monument  than  the  ephemeral  record  of  hasty  pam- 
phleteering, or  lli  traditions  o  nip. fires! 

Mevenons  /  The  days  dragged  very  wearily  befe.  As  wo 
were  all  nominally  sick  men,  the  facetious  Yankees  put  us  on 
sick  diet  or  half  rations,  and  as  there  was  no  sutler  and  no 
chance,  therefore,  of  eking  out  our  allowance,  we  began  to 
fear  our  enemies  were  in  a  fair  way  of  unfitting  us  for  active 
service  for  the  balance  of  the  war.  It  seems  that  we  are  to 
be  kept  here  until  five  thousand  arc  accumulated,  and  then* 
deported.  Having  no  other  occupation,  I  undertook  some 
duties  in  connection  with  the  hospital— for  wc  had  a  hospital 
within  the  pen — and  thus  managed  to  endure  the  tedium  of 
my  cage  by  pious  exercises  in  the  shape  of  administering 
hospital  slops  and  allopathic  bolus 

In  tl^p.  midst  of  the  pen  was  a  pile  of  logs  which  the  pris- 
oners used  ;.  ervatory  to  get  the  earliest  information 
of  the  arrival  of  the  "New  York,"  the  truce  boat  of  Colonel 
Mnlford,  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Exchange,  whose  coming, 
it  was  thought,  would  ensure  a  spe  it:  but  the  Yankees 
took  it  into  their  sapient  heads  that  there  was  something 
"irregular"  in  this,  and  our  logs  were  pulled  doAvn  and  all 
spying  pat  under  the  ban. 

We  '.  October  28th.     An  order  came  to  diagnose  us 

to-day,  and  it  became  necessary  that  every  one  should  have  a 
disease  forthwith — at  least  on   paper;      \\  accordingly 

called  up  and  asked  our  various  complaints:  being  still   in  a 
vulgar  condition  of  health,   it   1  necessary  for   me  to 

catch  a  disease  suddenly:  accordingly,  i;  soon  became  paiu- 


112  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

fully  afflicted,  and  when  called  on  by  the  doctor,  I  drawled 
out  a  disease  with  a  name  as  long  as  a  Nantucket  "sea  sar- 
pint,"  and  was  passed  nem.  con.  This  looks  as  though  we 
were  about  to  move,  and  Dixie  stock  is  rising. 

Sunday,  October  31st.  Saturday  we  had  a  false  alarm. 
We  were  ordered  out,  inspected,  examined,  and  marched 
down  to  the  dock  where,  in  the  offing  the  Arctic,  Baltic  and 
Northern  Light  are  lying,  and  "  then  marched  back  again," 
to  our  measureless  and  unspeakable  disgust.  But  to-day,  we 
are  off  in  earnest.  About  11  a.  m.,  we  were  summoned  into 
line,  our  names  called,  our  blankets  and  all  contraband  cloth- 
ing stolen  from  us,  except  in  a  few  instances  where  the  articles- 
were  worthless,  and  then  we  Avere  conducted  to  the  wharf 
where  a  small  steamer  received  us  "in  lots,"  and  conveyed  us 
to  the  Northern  Light,  which,  with  steam  up,  was  lying  about 
a  half  a  mile  out.  The  other  transports  were  already  laden 
with  the  most  helpless  of  the  prisoners — those  who  in  the  first 
instance  had  been  taken  to  the  hospitals. 

We  scrambled  Up  the  side  of  the  fine  steamer,  formerly  a 
mail  and  passenger  ship  in  the  California  trade,  now  a  govern- 
ment transport  in  the  employment  of  Uncle  Abe,  at  one  thou- 
sand dollars  a  day  besides  her  coal,  and  were  marched  in  va- 
rious directions  to  the  two  lower  decks  of  the  ship,  where 
hammocks  of  canvas  had  been  slung  in  sufficient  nurnbers  to 
accommodate  nine  hundred  men.  Some  twenty  or  thirty  were 
separated  by  the  Surgeon  and  kept  on  deck,  for  what  purpose 
we  never  knew,  and  our  little  tug  steamed  ashore  for  another 
load.  It  was  near  night-fall  when  she  returned,  and  as  many 
of  the  prisoners  were  victims  of  night-blindness,  I  asked  and 
obtained  permission  to  assist  them  aboard,  the  dangerous  foot- 
ing of  the  ladder  inspiring  them  with  uncomfortable  appre- 
hension of  a  plunge  overboard — and  altho'  Friar  Peyton, 
told  Henry  VIII  that  the  road  to  Heaven  was  as  short  by  water 
as  by  land,  the  same  is  not  as  true  of  the  road  to  Dixie. 

I  had  helped  the  last  one  aboard  when  a  handsome,  frank- 
looking  sailor  with  as  genial  a  face  as  ever  bent  over  a  binnacle, 
tapped  mc  on  the  shoulder  and  informed   me  that  he  wanted  to 


1'IVtf  MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  113 

see  me  "foYrerd."  My  military  habit  of  obedience,  I  presume  it 
must  have  been,  that  induced  my  instant  compliance  and  under 
the  guide  of  Samuel  II.  Rich,  1st  officer  of  the  ship,  I  soon 
found  myself  in  his  cabio,  scrutinizing  the  pattern  of  his  furni- 
ture through  an  excellent  glass — whose  make,  I  never  knew. 
From  this  time  I,  in  common  with  all  my  fellow-prisoners  who 
had  any  intercourse  with  him,  had  occasion  to  bless  the  day  that 
we  fell  into  the  hands  of  so  clever  a  gentleman  and  capital  an 
officer.  A  young  man  but  an  old  seaman,  he  had  circumnavi- 
gated the  globe  a  half  a  dozen  times,  be  th  i  same  more  or  less, 
knew  every  foot  of  sea  from  Fulton  Ferry  to  Van  Dicmnn's 
Land,  and  possessed  that  ease  of  manner,  that  cosmopolitan 
heart  and  large  fund  0;f  information  and  anecdote  which,  with 
thorough  professional  knowledge,  forms  the  highest  type  of  sailor 
— almost  the  highest  type  of  the  social  man. 

The  management  of  the  ship  devolved  on  Mr.  Rich,  daring  our 
stay  aboard,  the. captain  being  sick,  and  I  had  thereby  occasion 
to  observe  the  universal  respect  and  good  will  which  he  com- 
manded from  the  whole  crew.  These,  by  the  way,  were  an  ex- 
ceptional party.  Theresas  not  a  Yankee  among  them,  as  far' 
as  I  discovered,  and  a  more  liberal  set  of  enemies  would  be 
hard  to  find.  As  I  have  spoken  of  the  captain,  (Lefebre)  I  may 
mention  that  he  was  the  officer  who  commanded  the  Vanderbilt, 
when  she  was  down  in  Hampton  Roads,  threatening  destruction 
to  our  Mcrrimac.  "When  the  Merrimac  threw  all  Yankeedom 
into  such  confusion  early  in  18G2,  Lincoln  sent  for  Commodore 
Vanderbilt,  to  advise  with  him  as  to  wdiat  was  to  be  done  with 
the  monster.  The  Commodore  informed  him  that  there  was  no 
use  trying  to  fight  her,  and  the  only  chance  wad  to  run  her 
down;  but,  as  the  United  States  possessed  no  vessel  of  sufficient 
tonnage  for  that  achievement,  he  presented  Lincoln  with  tho 
Vanderbilt,  a  magnificent  steamer  of  six  thousand  tons,  and 
hurried  to  New  York  to  put  her  in  order  for  the  great  work. 
She  had  her  upper  works  at  once  taken  eff,  a  formidable  battery 
of  heavy  timber  and  cotton  bales  put  in,  enforcing  her  bows 
with  thirty  solid  feet  of  structure,  and  a  heavy  casing  of  cotton 
15 


114  PRISONER   OF   WAR.       * 

bales  put  around  her  boilers.  In  this  trim  she  was  sent  clown  to 
Hampton  Roads,  and  there  lay  for  sixty  days  ;  but,  as  the  Merri- 
mac  challenged  the  whole  Yankee  fleet  for  two  days  after  her 
arrival,  in  vain,  I  presume  the  naval  commandant  at  Fortress 
Monroe  did  not  have  as  much  faith  as  Vandcrbilt,  in  the  suc- 
cess of  the  running  down  project. 

Monday,  October  31st.  Arrived  off  Old  Point  this  morning. 
The  harbor  is  filled  with  vessels  of  war,  among  which,  I  recog- 
nize the  Minnesota,  Susquehanna,  Wabash,  Shenandoah,  Iron- 
sides, and  any  number  ol  iron-clads,  M  double-enders,"  &c,  the 

whole  floating,  I  understand,  two  thousand  guns ! 

Commodore  Lee  has  been  superseded,  on  account,  it  is  said,  of 
too  much  love  for  the  rebels,  and  Porter  reigns  in  his  stead. 
On  each  side,  the  war  seems  to  have  eliminated  natives  of  the 
other  from  its  service,  until  it  has  become  a  war  of  race  rather 
than  of  institutions.  Porter's  vessel,  the  Malvern,  lies  a  milo 
West  of  us. 

We  remained  in  Hampton  Ttoads  until  Tuesday  the  8th.  The 
Atlantic  and  Baltic  lay  near  us,  and  every  morning  we  saw  cof- 
fins going  over  the  side  in  numbers,  which  suggested  uncomfort- 
able reflections  on  the  uncertain  tenure  of  life  on  a  prison-ship. 
On  the  Atlantic  alone,  there  were  forty  deaths  during  our  stay 
in  the  harbor — a  stay  obviously  unnecessary,  and  therefore, 
shamefully  cruel,  since  it  compelled  the  confinement  of  hundreds 
of  sick  men  in  the  filthy  and  unventilated  holds  of  large  ships 
without  proper  food,  medicine,  or  attendance.  Captain  Grey, 
of  the  Atlantic,  protests  loudly  against  the  inhumanity  of  the 
procecdure,  but  circumlocution  must  have  time.  On  the  2nd 
and  3rd,  we  were  visited  by  a  furious  t-torin,  during  which  Com- 
modore Porter  steamed  up  to  Portsmouth,  out  of  the  reach  of 
danger,  and  there  remained  until  Saturday.  On  the  4th,  But- 
ler left  for  New  York,  whither  he  goes  to  keep  the  peace!  The 
crew  of  our  ship  ;;re  from  New  York,  principally,  and  all  Mc- 
Clellan  men — their  indignation  at  having  the  Brute  sent  to 
overawe  their  friends  of  "the  bloody  Sixth,"  is  quite-  refreshing, 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  115 

and  they  freely  promise  him  a  merry  time  if  he  interferes. 
They  arc  mistaken — no  race  ever  bowed  the  knee  to  bayonets 
with  such  edifying  humility  as  the  Yankees. 

Saturday,  5th.  The  New  York,  Colonel  Miilford's  "  ex- 
change "  boat  is  alongside  the  wharf  to-day,  and  any  number 
of  rumors  fill  the  ship,  of  speedy  departure.  These  are  con. 
firmed  somewhat  by  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Beebee,  Agent  of  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  with  large  supplies  for  the  Yankee  pri- 
soners, who  will  be  received  in  exchange  for  us.  Some  of 
these  supplies  failed  to  reach  Savannah,*  as  the  guards  broke 
into  the  treasure  to-night,  and  all  got  gloriously  drunk  on  the 
liquid  contributions  of  the  Commission. 

•  Sunday  Gth.  A  prize  steamer  loaded  with  cotton  came  in 
to-day,  and  two  more  during  the  week.  These  vessels  with 
their  cargoes  arc  sold  after  condemnation  by  a  prize  court, 
and  half  the  proceeds,  turned  over  to  the  government.  One- 
twentieth  of  the  remaining  half  goes  to  the  commandant  of 
the  North  Atlantic  squadron,  and  the  rest  is  divided  among 
the  officers  and  crew  of  the  capturi  ssel.     Under   this 

rule,  it  is  estimated  that  Porter's  share  of  prize-mouey,  while 
on  duty  here  up  to  this  time — about  twenty-live  days—will 
amount  to  twenty  thousand  .     Last    night    we    were 

aroused  by  an  indiscriminate  firing  throughout  the  fleet,  and 
on  getting"  on  deck,  found  the  harbor  ablaze  with  colored 
lights,  and  guns  going  oil"  in  ever}- direction — a  sham  naval 
battle  at  night.  This,  and  the  constant  drilling  at  the  guns, 
with  the  daily  practice  of  launch  drill,    indicate  an  early  and 

3  naval  attack  in  some  direction — probably  AViln 
ton,  and  as   an   arm  accumulating  her  ly  more 

powerful  than  any  ever  set  afloat  from  the  days  of  the  Argo- 
nauts, we  for  a  powerful  blow,  when  it  is  delivered. 
Boat  loads  of  soldiers  are  constantly  passing  down  the  river. 
These  arc  patriol  itripe)  who  arc  being 
furloughed  to  go  home  I  >  vote — "no  other  need  apply," 

At4|  on  the  (.'veiling  of  Tu  •  8tb,  wo   weighed  an- 

chor, and  in  company  with  the  Atlantic,  Baltic,  Illinois,  Her- 


116  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

man  Livingstone,  and  two  or  three  empty  transports,  we  start- 
ed for  Hilton  Head,  where  Ave  arrived  about  9  o'clock  Thurs- 
day night.  This,  as  the  world  knows,  is  the^om^'  appui  of  the 
military  operations  of  the  enemy  in  South  Carolina. 

Quite  a  village  has  sprung  up  in  the  harbor,  and  about  a 
mile  north  of  this  is  Mitchell-town,  named  after  the  astrono- 
mer General,  who  left  his  app  opriate  star-gazing  in  the  Cin- 
cinnati Observatory  to  civilize  Southern  barbarians.  Bat  their 
country  r    .  1  their  wrongs,  by  poisoning   his  blood,  and 

that  of  "many  a  tyrant  since,"  with  the  deadly  malaria  of  the 
coast,  and  so  ended  that  and  all  other  mundane  business  for  the 
"astronomer-royal"  of  Porkopolis. 

Mitchell-town  is  quite  an  inl  g  locality,  as  the  scene 

of  a  grand  edn  al  and  civilizing  experiment  on  the  blacks 

whereby  the  problem  of  the  unprovability  of  that  singular 
race  was  sought  to  be  solved.  And,  singular,  indeed  they  are. 
For  at  lea:',  forty  centuries  they  have  held  undisputed  posses- 
sion  of  a  continent,  and  ye<f their  ■encrations  have  not 

a  trace  on  the  page  of  history.  #  Time  has  overflowed  with 
miracles  of  human  achievement,  wherever  else  man's  foot  has 
trod;    hut    here,  there   is   ono  iar    blank.     In   all   these 

teeming  centuries,  they  have  Mood  still.  They  have  written  no 
hook,  painted  no  i  ved  no   statue,  built   no    temple, 

established  no  laws,  launched  no  ships,  developed  no  language, 
achieved  no  invention.     The  wisdom  of  the   Egyptians  was  at 

■  door,  and  they  lit  r  from  that  bright  torch.     The 

Arab  startled  Europe  with  his  advances  in  mathematics  and 
natural  science,  filling  the  northern  sky  of  Africa  with  an 
aurora  of  seii  — but  its  ray  could  not   penetrate  the 

invincible  ignorance  of  the  Ethiopian.  Christianity  was  plant- 
ed there  by  martyrs  of  the  apostolic  age,  and  stifled  and  died 
in  the  mephitic  air.  Civilization,  upheld  by  the  concurrent 
efforts  of  the  most  powerful  stales,  succumbed  to  influences  more 
powerful  than  arms,  treasures  and  fanaticism  combined,  and 
the  African  stands  to  day,  as  did  his  ancestors  in  the  days 
of  the  Pharoahs,  a  moral  and  physical  mystery  in  the  earth— 


FIVE   MONTHS   AMONG   THE   YANKEES.  117 

the  victim  of  some  dread  judgment  of  God,  powerful,  search- 
ing, pervasive,  and,  it  would  seem,  irreversible.  Let  us  re- 
turn to  the  Mitchcl  town  fiasco.  Every  one  knows  the  result. 
Several  packages  of  first  class  Yankee  school  manna  were 
exported  to  Mitchell-town,  armed  with  acres  of  spelling  books, 
pinafores,  slate-pencils  and  sugar  candy,  for  the  reclaiming  of 
theunregenerate  Pompeys  and  pickaninnies  of  South  Carolina, 
and  divers  bulbous  Sleeks  and  attenuated  Pogrims,  electrified 
the  world  with  the  wonders — to  come.  Monthly  reports  kept 
alive  the  excitement,  and  monthly  contributions  kept  alive  the 
reports,  until  a  half  a  year  having  elapsed,  it  leaked  out  that  the 
"marms,"  had  with  singular  unanimity  resolved  upon  a  grand 
and  unusual  act  of  consecration  to  the  cause,  to  which  the  Hin- 
doo "suttee  "  is  not  a  circumstance.  Pursuing  their  martyr- 
like resolve  to  devote  themselves  entirely  to  the  elevation  of 
the  poor  blacks,  they  magnanimously  determined  to  waive  all 
paltry  prejudices  as  to  color,  and  a  general  amalgamation  ensued 
and — and — in  short,  school-teaching  became  soon  entirely  out 
of  the  question.  Poor  school  marms  !  They  were  incontinent- 
ly dismissed  by  the  heartless  government,  and  the  elevation 
of  the  unbleached  received  a  mortal  blow.  Pitiable  indeed 
was  the  case  of  these  Connecticut  martyrs,  and  miserably 
cruel  the  conduct  of  Uncle  Sam.  Verily,  verily,  republics 
are  ungrateful.  Nothing  is  left  to  these  missionaries  of  civil- 
ization except  the  reward  of  a  satisfied  conscience,  and  that 
consolation  which  springs  from  the  faithful  discharge  of  ma- 
ternal duties. 

We  lay  in  this  roadstead  until  Saturday,  when  orders  came 
to  proceed  as  near  as  possible  to  Fort  Pulaski,  and  in  a  few 
hours,  we  were  safely  moored  along  side  the  single  Yankee 
gunboat,  which  kept  watch  and  ward  over  the  entrance  to  the 
Savannah  river,  and  which,  by  the  way,  was  covered  to  the 
tops  with  a  strong  n  i  prevent  enterprising  rebels  from 

boarding  and  capturing  her,  by  one  of  those  "  horscjmarine  " 
movements,  which  have  been  among  the  most  amusinn-  and 
most  successful  feats  of  the  War. 


118  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

We  lay  here  all  night — a  soft,  summery  night,  though  late 
in  the  fall,  and  many  of  us  lounged  on  deck  till  morning,  too 
much  exhilarated  by  the  safe  termination  of  our  captivity  and 
the  rrear  approach  of  home,  to  waste  our  hours  in  the  prosaic 
stupidity  of  sleep.  Major  Abrahams,  the  officer  in  charge  of 
us,  and  Lieut.  Gordon,  both  of  the  85th  Penn.,  I  met  frequent- 
ly while  pacing  the  deck,  and  found  them  quite  as  anxious  to 
deliver  us,  as  we  to  be  delivered.'  Their  terms  of  service  had 
expired,  and  they  were  pressed  into  this  service  by  a  piece  of 
military  smartness — which  is  not  wisdom  either  side  of  the 
line — in  order  that  some  duty  might  be  extorted  from  them 
after  the  legal  claim  of  the  Government  had  expired.  Early 
next  morning,  the  Exchange  boat,  "New  York,"  with  Colonel 
John  K.  Mulford,  Commissioner,  aboard,  came  along  side ;  we 
were  hurried  aboard,  and  with  three  rousing  cheers  for  the 
Northern  Light  and  her  officers  and  crew,  steamed  up  stream 
to  the  truce  ground,  some  ten  miles  up  the  river.  Here  we 
were  met  by  a  deputation  of  citizens  and  a  squad  of  that  ex- 
cellent society  of  Good  Samaritans*  who  have  succored  the 
soldier  on  every  field  and  under  all  circumstances,  from  the 
Spring  of  1862  to  this  day,  the  Richmond  Ambulance  Com- 
mittee, and  transferring  ourselves  with  commendable  speed — 
for  invalids — to  an  aboriginal  craft  composed  of  a  railroad 
shed  mortised  into  a  flat  boat,  we  were  soon  puffing  at  a  safe 
speed  to  Savannah. 

It  was  near  mid-day  when  we  arrived  here,  amid  the  enthu- 
siastic shouts  of  the  people  ai  -livening  music  of  a  gen- 
uine Southern  band,  vocal  with  "Dix 

How  joyfully  >ns  met  us,  v*ho  sixty  days 

thereafter  passed  sue  mely ."  loyal '■'  resolutions  at  the 

bidding  of  Tecumseh  ian,  it  is  not  pleasant  now  to  dwell 

upon.     Sixty  di  y    are  an  se  >n  in  these  ti. 

Our  arrival  was  the  signal  for  a  general  massacre  of  all 
bipeds  furnished  wit  ?rs,  in  that    v  ,  and  the  pri- 

soners fared  sumptuously  once  more. 


five  months  among  the  Yankees.  119 

Savannah  is  the  most  beautiful  Atlantic  city  of  the  South, 
and  we  found  in  her  long  level  streets  and  her  spacious  and 
elegant  squares  agreeable  means  of  passing  our  walking  hours. 
An  interview  with  General  McLaws  enabled  me  to  obtain 
passes  for  my  fellow  "  militia  men  "  and  myself,  and  the  next 
evening  I  bade  adieu  to  Georgia.  After  numberless  and  most 
perilous  adventures,  such  as  infallibly  befall  those  who  go 
down  into  the  land  in  railroad  cars,  I  arrived  in  Petersburg  on 
the  night  of  Thursday — tired,  hungry  and  unkempt,  bnt  pro- 
foundly grateful  withal  to  that  over-ruling  Providence  who 
had  preserved  me  unharmed  amid  the  pci  ids  of  Yankee  prisons, 
the  raging  ocean,  and  the  Piedmont  Iiailroadw 

An  imperial  autumn  moon  was  Hooding  t&e  earth  with  a 
of  silver  .sheen,  chequering  the  city  with  it3  splendid  con- 
trasts of  dreamy  lights  and  bold,  deep  shadows,  as^^rod  its 
deserted  streets,  mouglied  in  many  a  quarter  with  the  track 
of  the  crushing.  '.  shot;  and  the  sharp  perpetual  ring 

of  the  picket's  rifle,  gave  its  martial  echo  to  every  foot-fall 
that  pressed  the  pavement.  Everything  suggested  strife,  con- 
test, and  the  wreck  and  desolation  of  war.  I  passed  the 
churches  and  found  that  their  yards  had  been  converted  into 
burial  grounds — the  public  cemetery  being  within  reach  of 
the  enemy's  guns,  and  therefore  unapproachable.  In  many 
private  grounds  I  noticed  embankments  with  which  bomb- 
proofs  were  covered,  for  iyoftiic  citizens  during  the 
frequent  bombardments.  Many  of  the  lower  stories  of  dwell- 
ings were  protected  by -barricades  of  cotton  bales:  on  every 
side,  in  a  word,  were  monuments  at  once  of  the  perils  and  the 
fortitude  of  the  gallant  people,  who,  through  a  siege  of  nine 
months,  during  which  they  have  suffered  every  extremity  of 
war,  save  famine,  and  almost  that,  have  nobly  and  without  the 
first  murmur  of  complaint,  devoted  themselves  and  their  all  to 
the  cause,  coveting,  as  it  were,  the  honor  of  civic  martyrdom, 
from  which  so  many  others  have  meanly  shrunk.  Well  and 
worthily  did  the  noble  little  town  win  her  title  of  "  Cockade'' 
in  1812  ;  and  nobler  and  more  indisputable  is  her  right  to  the 
distinction  now. 


// 


120  PRISONER   OF   WAR. 

How  suggestive  was  all  this  !  In  leaving  prison,  I  found  I 
had  not  come  to  peace,  but  to  the  presence  and  the  centre  of 
war,  and  I  read  in  the  melancholy  but  mute  lessons  of  the 
solemn,  silent  tombs  that  started  like  unbidden  ghosts  out  of 
the  shadow  of  each  house  of  worship,  the  record  o£  mortal 
dangers,  not  to  men  alone,  but  to  inoffensive  and  helpless  wo- 
men and  children.  Still  there  required  no  subtle  philosophy 
to  find  abundant  consolation  amid  all  this — was  I  not  with 
each  step  of  my  hurrying  feet,  fast  approaching,  nearer  and 
nearer,  to '.he  welcome  and  the  warmth  of  the  lips  and  hearts 
and  hearth  of  Home  ? 


